Design for 1200 ft2 WH

Hello all! First off let me share my gratitude with everyone on this site who give time out of their busy lives to help out those who share their same passion for music, recording, and designing. Special thanks to John and Steve(and all the other pros) for some how replying to almost every post I read (and giving solid advice). I'll try and keep this as short as possible as this is my first real post and I have many ?'s. First a little overview/background- - I currently live in Monterey Bay but soon will be moving to San Jose to build a studio for a friend that plays pro hockey. He's a great musician/singer and is looking to build a personal studio also to be used at some point for a record label he is starting up (www.lunarrecord.com). - I am also a musician/songwriter/engineer. I graduated from Ex'pression Center for New Media (Emeryville) in 2000. While there, I was lucky enough to have a 10 day class on studio design taught by John Storyk. I have a good general understanding of design/acoustics, but finding this website has definitely helped boost my confidence in actually building a studio. Mark and I are currently looking at a 1200 sq. ft. (50'x24') Warehouse in S.J. I have attached an open floorplan along with my first rough layout to see if this is even a space we can work with before we sign a lease. This WH is a little harder to work than others we've looked at as the bathroom is on the far side of the WH, and the RU door and main entrance are on the same side as each other. In my design I tried to use as little hall space as possible to use that footage on other rooms, while still having access to the B.R. w/o having to go through rooms. My main ? right now is does anyone see any potential problems w/ this WH space? Or in Leasing a space in a WH in general? I read a post about weight of walls & ceiling on concrete foundation, it would seem to me the foundations in an industrial WH would be pretty thick. The owner of the property is being very cool about us wanting to build a studio which hasn't been the case for other spaces I've looked at. There is also a window co., and a HVAC co. in the complex that have already offered assistance and also seem like nice guys. I'll save the technical specs/?'s till later. Just wanted to give y'all my idea to mull around. If anyone has any other design ideas I be stoked to check them out. Oh, and budget for materials/construction is hopefully $15-25,000. I told Mark it could get up to $35-40,000 just to be safe, but we still need to buy a lot of gear. He has a couple buddys for helping w/ construction (along w/my assistance). I don't know whether any have contracting backgrounds, trying to figure all that out. So I think that's it for now, I hope its not to much to absorb but just wanted to get some feedback. Thanks in advance! Larry P.S. sorry the drawings are sub-par. It was a job just to try and get them on. :x :) (the big line going through the main studio is just where I had to cut and paste(tape) so I could re-scan.

The wall between the 2 ISO rooms should be angled.

I agree - I'd also consider a door between the loading bay and the front office. You'll find yourself locking up late at night after the band's left and having to go back through the studio, lights etc, just to leave with them :) cheers john

Thanks for the reply guys. In trying to quickly sketch a plan I missed that wall, duh! I think this is going to be the WH we end up leasing. It's not as big as I had hoped, but after looking at 25+ WH's I think it will work well. My next step is a design program. I'm leaning toward Sketchup, but is it worth the money ($500)? I know smart draw will work, but Skechup looks like a great program and there is a possability I might do more design in the future. Thanks, Larry :)

Larry - Sketchup is worth every dollar IMO and when you cost it up against your whole project cost - it's chicken feed :) cheers john