Warehouse studio design - are you able to help?

jbassino · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:32 am

Nice place!!

Why don't you get John to de design the studio for you? Having such a nicely place, it deserves a pro like him to make wonders with it! Otherwise, you still need months of learning and diggin into this forum to really make it happen. (I mean by your proposed ideas, so far, just squares and rectangles. You do know proper 2 leaf MSM designs? )

Just my advice
If I had a place like that, No doubt John would get the prize

Rhino · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:10 am

Hi jbassino,

Yes I would definitely like John's input! I do understand 2 leaf MSM design and avoiding parallel surfaces etc etc.... However I AM hopeless with Sketchup! ;-)

I mentioned that those ideas were just to give an idea of where in the building each room could be placed, rather than the actual shape - it took me weeks to sketch up the shell in its current state, I don't know where to begin trying to correctly put together a nice 3d model of how the overall layout might look. I understand that could have got lost in the rest of the guff in my post. ;-)

I'm blown away by the Sketchup designs some others are able to come up with!

Ro · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:05 pm

Rhino, welcome to JLS. Excellent introduction!

cadesignr · **Posted:** Sat Aug 22, 2009 1:02 am

Hello Rhino. I'd be willing to give it a shot. But I need your .skp file. If you are interested, shoot me a PM and I'll send you my email addy so you can send me the file.
fitZ

Rhino · **Posted:** Sat Aug 22, 2009 8:38 am

Thanks for the welcome, Ro. Any suggestions you can offer will be valued!

Rhino · **Posted:** Sat Aug 22, 2009 8:42 am

Hi cadesignr,

Thanks very much for the interest. Of course I'd love for you to give it a shot. The skp file is up there in my first post for anyone who would like to download it and have a play. I'll PM you as well just in case.

I'll have a battle with Sketchup again over the next few days and see if I can come up with anything.

Exciting stuff!

Rhino · **Posted:** Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:24 pm

Ok, I had a play with another idea. Again, please excuse the lack of Sketchup skill.
Let me know what you think!

Notes:
I made the loading bay a little wider to accomodate unloading of a van from the side.
The hallways from the loading bay to the live room are 1.8m wide for gear access (is this enough/too much?)
The control room is not based on any ratio - I'm unsure how to measure this when the ceiling and walls are splayed?

cadesignr · **Posted:** Sun Aug 23, 2009 3:27 am

Here's a list of the rooms (or areas) that we need to fit into the building:

Control room
Live room
Vocal booth
Iso booth
Video suite 1
Video suite 2
Machine room?/archive room
Workbench
Rehearsal/writing room
Office/editing room
Storage

Quote:

we'd like a world class studio for a minimal outlay, isn't it always the way?!

Quote:

STAGE
At this stage we have secured the building and received keys. Construction is due to begin on 1st of October, to be completed as soon as realistically possible. We'll throw open the doors for business in January.

G'day Rhino. I downloaded your basic Warehouse plan and Idea 3 this morning. Will start to work immedietly. But let me put this into perspective. Your project is a HUGE undertaking, with an ambitious if not unrealistic time line. I don't know about New Zealand Building Code process, but from my experience, just getting a set of code compliant plans completed for this scope of project could take months, not to mention getting it APPROVED by the compliance authority. :roll:

This is NOT a typical wham bam thank you mam home studio in the outback of suburbia. If I understand anything(world class studio)this is a full blown commercial project, which means, most likely must comply with COMMERCIAL building codes and inspections. This means permits, which if experience means anything, at least in the US, can be a lesson in hindsight, not to mention naivity. Thats not to say I think you personally are naive, but it appears that your initial time frame is not reasonable.

I'd submit, just to prepare a set of working drawings of this scope for submittal to your local BID for permit issue, is at best a challange for even a person familiar with your local building codes, let alone for an owner/builder with lack of local professional consultation. In other words..you MAY be in for a rude awakening. As an example, consider a section of the USB(Uniform building Code) that became applicable to a project I helped my former employer with after he IGNORED the permitting process
and modified an existing building he owned to lease to a client.

My boss, being a self made millionare, was accustomed to doing as he pleased, without regard for things that could jeprodise his project progress and or his wallet. In this case, he used employees of his Architectural Mill/Store Fixture business, to remodel one of the suites in a StripMall he owned, for a client who leased it for a private Educational business. When the project was about 75% finished, a local Building Inspector happened to walk by, and seeing construction taking place with NO Permit posted on the premisis, proceeded to file an official STOP WORK order under threat of lockup. After an initial inspection of the premisis, my boss was advised that in order for him to proceed, he must submit all the applicable documents to BID to procure a Building Permit. Which under normal circumstances could have been a relatively easy task had he done it in the first place. However, once a Stop Work order is issued, BID requires FULL compliance with the codes AND a FINE, which in this case cost over $4k alone. Not to mention the fact that because the clients business was open to the public, AND produced a BUILDING LOAD Maximum of 40 people, now required a full remodel to meet Title 24...ie...Handicap compliance. To make a long story short, my boss had to not only submit plans showing this compliance, but also all other compliance plans as well...ie...electircal, plumbing, egress, Fire Sprinkling, HVAC, construction details and others, and DEMO all existing new work and that existing portion which allowed for Title 24 and other issues compliance. End result..loss of and sued by client, cost of all work without permit, fines, new work including Handicap Bathroom plumbing relocation, professional Electrical and Mechanical Engineer consultation and documentation prep/stamp AND since this was a commercial project, a Misdemeanor charge in a court of law. Needless to say, I believe this story MAY be applicable to yours.

Rhino, I don't mind spending time on your project. However, this is not something I take lightly nor with a grain of salt. When I design, I get right down to the nuts and bolts. And it takes time, especially one of this scale and scope. And LOTS of information, which I am accustomed to organizing for projects of this scope. Here is an example.

Let me give you an idea of where I am coming from. I've been in the field of design/fabrication for more than 30 years. I've worked on over 2000 projects, which range from one of a kind high end furniture projects to fixture design and fabrication for over 300 floors of MACY's. I am fluent in Autocad and other programs such as Sketchup. I've been studying recording studio design for over 20 years, as I am a musician and home studio owner myself. So I approach projects such as yours from a professional level. However, since we are communicating on a public forum, and your project is so big, I feel I must warn you that this will take quite a bit of time to even organize into a coherent design, let alone a set of workable plans. In that regard, I also feel a little apprehensive about spending this much time on a forum project without knowing a few facts, which I will privately email you about. Once satisfied, I will be happy to help you.

Untill then, here is something I already had previously drawn which may or may not be applicable to your control room design criteria, but may illustrate my insight into your direction for them. At one time I had a similar design challange, and this was but one of many concept drawings. Please keep in mind this is only a concept drawing and is FAR from actually being detailed.

Ok, gotta go now, But I'll take a look and organize a set of questions. Untill then Cheeers!
fitZ

cadesignr · **Posted:** Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:19 am

Hello Rhino. One thing you need to know about me is I'm a pro DETAILER. Which means I draw things AS they really will be built...ie I need to know what I'm working with EXACTLY as built.
Are the things you've drawn in the file ACCURATE? I hope so. Right now, I need to put in the drawing everything that is there...relative to the depth of knowlege I need to design this project. This means I need lots of dimensions and pictures. :wink:

Here is the first thing.

Cheers
fitZ

cadesignr · **Posted:** Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:28 am

BTW, just to give you an example of the detail I go to, here is one drawing of 65 I've already posted on another bbs for a small Home Studio.
Maybe this will help you understand why I need a lot of info.
cheers.
fitZ

Rhino · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:33 am

Thanks for your excellent post cadesignr. You've offered some good food for thought. Regarding the timeline; yes, it is extremely ambitious and I might have been a little hasty in saying "throwing open the doors in January". To clarify that, we'd like to begin bringing in a bit of income in January. I quite expect that it will take us at least a couple of years to get the studio anywhere near the "world class" facility we're (again extremely ambitiously) aiming for. But what IS important is that we at least have the plan sorted out before any construction begins, so that we can begin by building the right bones. I'd hate to have to pull walls down again if we start with them in the wrong place! From there we can continue to work on it over the next couple of years.

Come January we'd at least like to have the video suites (or temporary rooms available to use as video suites), as that side of the business will be income generating from day one. We'd like the basic room 'shells' to be in place so that we can be recording clients, heavily discounted of course. If we have at least a vocal booth then we can be doing voiceovers. With a live room 'space', the band can be rehearsing. Any control room will be as good as what I'm using at the moment! Those basic things must be in place by January then we can stop paying rent on the current studio, which will of course allow for progression on the new studio.

Regarding the last design I posted above, I'm realising that the rehearsal room and 'office/edit' room will be a touch too small. I'm dreaming up a new layout around that area...
I'm also concerned about the windows above the booths allowing sunlight to shine right into my eyes through the control room window. Maybe a curtain/blind system? Maybe forego the natural light altogether?
Any comments/suggestions (from anyone!) on that design are most welcome.

Rhino · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:52 am

Sorry fitZ, I forgot to respond to your other post. I can see that you ARE pro detailer and I like that! As far as the dimensions of my sketch go, yes they are accurate to the best of my ability. The only 'unknown' on my sketch is the height of each 'tooth' of the roof; ie from the top of the side wall up to the peak of the roof. I don't have any easy way to measure this. So I took a photo of the 'right-angled triangle' as square on as possible, and judged that the distance between beams is 2.5x that of the height. (or put another way, the height is 20% of the distance between beams). My measurement between beams is accurate of course. I wasn't too concerned about the 'tooth' measurement being only an 'educated estimate', as I didn't expect there'd be too much construction going on in that area! Thus I also don't have much of the other roof information you have requested. If this is paramount to what you have in mind then I will endeavour to hire a large ladder and set to work with a measuring tape.

The lowest '?' in your picture (ie. the roof height at lowest point) is accurate in my sketch at 3.31m.

Would it help you if I took some more photos detailing the roof construction?

cadesignr · **Posted:** Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:28 am

Quote:

I wasn't too concerned about the 'tooth' measurement being only an 'educated estimate', as I didn't expect there'd be too much construction going on in that area!

Hello Rhino. I understand. However, HEIGHT of the control and stiudio rooms is of utmost importance, and I'm endeavoring to use all that is available.

I've got a list of questions almost completed, and will email them to you soon. However, I have started some conceptual work and will toss some ideas at you soon.
fitZ

John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum

Warehouse studio design - are you able to help?

Who is online