Conversion of preexisting Studio areas...

Once again it's time to ask for the advice of fellow forum users that have more experience than we do in studio design and construction. John Sayers and many others out there have been extremely generous in providing us with guidance, and as complete novices we are truely indebted to all of you for your patience and superb advice. We have finally found and acquired a reasonably acceptable commercially zoned space in which to locate our facility. This space was a former demo studio in the heart of the city, which was already outfitted with a floating wooden floor in the live room. Not all of the work done by the previous studio is up to our desired STC/TL standards and building codes, so it will require some HVAC and electrical reworking by qualified contractors, but I guess that is to be expected in any rebuid!. Attached are floorplans of the exisiting space, and our rough draft of what we are considering doing to the space. The walls we hope to remove are seemingly not load bearing. The 11' high non-spalyed wood and gyprock ceiling was already dropped 18" using T bars with acoustical tiles and the space directly above the tiles has been layered with 4" of thermal OC fiberglass (should this be replaced with 2" OC 703 or 3" Roxul AFB??) Since the original CR was poorly designed and was way too small, we suspect that the best way to proceed is to leave the live room basically alone (other than adding some acoustic treatments and beefing up the CR to Live Room single stud wall by replacing the R13 insulation with 3" Roxul AFB and adding additional mass via another gyprock layer to each side). We also hope to add a soundlock area that can double as an ISO booth if needed. At this point, we hope to demolish the vast majority of the existing partition walls (other than the CR to Live Room wall) and replace them with double framed steel studded walls with serious TL and STC levels as per NRC specifications. We intend to splay the inner walls by 6% each and use these inner walls to enclose slot resonators and absorbers as per designs by Mr. Sayers and Mr. Wiener. I was hoping to have the opinions of some of you much more experienced studio builders and designers as to how best to utilize the space at hand and if our CR and soundlock designs can be improved upon. As usual, all assistance and suggestons would be greatly appreciated... PS- Would there be any benefit at all to rehanging the suspended acoustic tile ceiling so it then has a 12% splay upwards towards the rear of the CR??? I know if it were a gyprock ceiling on RC this would be suggested, but as just T bars with acoustic tiles and insulation is this suspended splay going to be considered as a non paralell ceiling???? Ron MONTREAL[/code]

Ron - the main problems I see in your plan is access. Asa you have it you have to walk through the booth to enter the control room and the rec room which would be a pain in the A to work with. Maybe this layout gives better access. cheers john

Hi John, Thanks for once again pointing me in the right direction!. Your plan is far superior to my initial design, but I will need to adjust it slightly to reflect a change in the iso area layout, as the far right wall of the iso is a "load bearing wall" and I must make use of the exisiting doorway adjacent to the area you have placed the sofa. I will both re-post a modified version of your design and would appreciate your opinions (as well as the opinions of other forum users), and will also arrange yet another telephone consultation with you for perhaps later this week. I am meeting the HVAC contractor in the morning to discuss the inadequate ventilation and replacement of ductwork and HEPA filtered air exchanger that I suspect may be required. Thanks yet again for the superb advice! RON Montreal

Based on John Sayers' alterations, here is a newly drafted rough floorplan for the space mentioned above. I replaced John's suggested sliding glass doors with solid core wooden doors with windows in them as per budgetary requirements, and have altered the iso dimensions to fit whithout altering the load bearing wall and existing door cut into that specific wall. Any hints, suggestions, or comments would be very much appreciated!... Ron MONTREAL

Ron - even if that wall is a load bearing wall you can still alter the doors. Your new plan repeats the problem you initially had where you must go through the booth to get to the rec room or go to the bathroom. To modify that wall - i.e. shift the door, is not a major construction problem. cheers john

Thanks John, You're a real lifesaver! As you previously mentioned, there certainly was a potential major flaw in my first rough draft. I agree that it would be a real P.I.T.A. for either myself or my clients to have to walk through the iso area to gain access to the bathroom and/or rec. room!. Thanks for pointing that out... I would still prefer not to disturb the load bearing wall, as this will require a vastly more expensive type of "structural alteration permit" which in turn requires an special bond be posted with the city's urban planning offices and the filing of detailed architect's and/or structural engineer's plans. This process can take 5 weeks or more!. If however, we do not tamper with any structural elements (such as support beams, columns, and load bearing walls), I can instead purchase an inexpensive "renovation permit" with much less time, money and paperwork. I seemingly neglected to include pertainent further detail in the floorplan regarding the rest of the floor we are situated on. The attached revised floorplan now shows 2 adjacent office spaces (1 is ours) and a common hallway. Have a peek....by exiting the cr and using the rear studio exit door leading to the existing hallway, either myself or a client can in fact reach the live room and rec room or wc areas without having to pass through the iso. I have included a soundlock area with double glass doors between the iso and live room, which hopefully can be used in a similiar manner. Is this a reasonable solution??? RON

Ah - so there is another access. Maybe you could look along this line then?? cheers john

Thanks yet again John, I have just looked at your newest suggestion, and it looks like a potential winner!. I'm still not sure about my personal preferences about using a side view positioning of the CR (I usualy prefer to see the band directly in front of the mix position), but in this case it may be advantageous. Myself, our interior designer and our construction supervisior are about to depart for Ottawa to visit Bruce Valeraini at Blue Bear Studios (a superb John Sayers design) and to discuss the floorplan with both Bruce and legendary Canadian studio engineer Phil Bova (now he runs the Sage Electronics, a handbuilt mic and pre-amp manufacturing company), and I will Email you directly, as well as post the results, in a day or two, once we have all sat down and come up with either a decision or some sort of hybrid of your 2 layouts. Thanks so much... -RON

I'm still not sure about my personal preferences about using a side view positioning of the CR (I usualy prefer to see the band directly in front of the mix position), but in this case it may be advantageous.

It can look nice also :):) cheers john