Midimonkey Design Take I

[frederic]

First, thanks to the folks that helped with this and gave me ideas (Fitz - this means you!).

Anyway, I've attached the diagram of the current design, and I'd like to solicit input/feedback.

When you look at the diagram, you'll see an office area, which is already there, and I intend to pretty much leave it the way it is. The office area has 12' ceilings with a drop ceiling 2' below that point, for a total of 10' of space. The 2nd floor slab is incomplete, meaning that it goes from the top of the diagram to the bottom of the diagram, starting on the left, covering out to rightmost edge of the office area and bathroom. This means that part of the console room and the majority of the ISO1/Airlock booth is covered by this slab, 12' above the existing cement floor.

What I attempted to do with this design is control the "people flow" issue where as I wanted to avoid customers wandering through the office area and/or the console room. This is why the live room and the drum room have doors on the backside, allowing gear and crap to be brought in without going through the console room. This is also why I placed a wall in front of the large tank and the breaker area (right above the tank) so they don't get smacked or fiddled with. I thought double doors was a nice touch - larger openings.

You'll notice towards the bottom center, a strangely shaped room with a rectangular room next to it. The left room is the machine room, where recorders, computers, and other noisy stuff will be hidden audibly from the console room. Through a single wall with a door (to the right) will be the server farm, which will have three racks available for servers. Initially I won't need much of that space, as I'll have a single web/ftp/mail server, a SQL server, an application server, and an audio storage server with a large raid array. Not that much gear at all. In these two rooms the diagram indicates 24U, ignore that, its a cut and paste error. 42U racks will be installed.

In the right corner, is a mastering room. This could also be "console room B" and i know I have some parallel walls to design out, and I will do so shortly. Above that is a midi studio, which will have a workstation, two monitors, and racks of midi gear.

The percussion and live rooms could actually be larger, by making the pair of walls between them longer, thus moving that one corner out more (towards the tank). Not sure if I should do this or not, but there is a lot of wasted space behind them. The stupid square pole/girder of course is in the way, which is why I angled the wall as I did. I might move it out a little bit.

The ceilings in the console room (thats not underneath the 12' slab over the office) as well as the other rooms, will have vaulted ceilings, sloping down towards whats considered the "back" of the room. The maximum height will be 16', and the back of each room will be 12'.

I have a little cleanup to do in the reception area, as to put a reception area back there And you'll also notice one of the loading docks is now colored red. I made it red as I had expected to fill that door in with cinderblocks, but then I decided to block them both in. Now I'm thinking maybe the rear most door should be left, and I move the mastering room and the midi room and bathroom somewhere else.

The problem with this design is I have about 20 of them, and nothing really fits quite right. I think its because I stare at them too much!!!

Anyway, just sharing!

[frederic]

Actually thinking about it, I'd like to convert the mastering room to another, but much smaller, console room and maybe I'll move the bathroom against the tank/breaker room, and make the existing bathroom and part of the midi room into a smaller live room.

This way "studio A" comes with an engineer, and for clients that want to do their own mixing and are not weathly, could use the smaller section for their own stuff. I could also relocate the server room entirely above the office space on the concrete slab, and put in a stairwell to go upstairs.

I have to do a stairwell anyway because I'm going to have a "facility UPS" up there to protect all gear from power irregularities. I could even cut up some of the office space for more room (with a 12' ceiling height before any acoustical treatments) and move that upstairs too.

Okay, guess its time to start diagram 21

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Too many to make, and as soon as you make one, it changes something else!
But #20 looks great frederic. Thanks for the appreciation. Looks like your on the right track. You do nice drawings too! Keep us up to date on what your doing, and any help I can give is available no charge. I like to do this stuff. BTW, I just got an offer approved on a house/studio(giant old Catholic nuns retreat, built like a tank in 1908, looking over Coos Bay, Oregon). Has 3 outbuildings, one for printing, one for my shop, and the cool one for my studio. Anyway, good luck getting your design finished.
fitz

[Rochey]

great post fredric...

I am becoming increasingly envious of your new building... I want one too!!!]

Keep us all updated, and if you can, Take some pictures, so we can all plan our own mega-studios in our own heads... (thats the only way i'll ever manage it, god knows land is too expensive in the UK...)

congrats on a great find

R

[Son of Mixerman]

Looks pretty nice. I might add a suggestion or two.

1st suggestion: Add another set of doors in the northwest corner of the live room. The less walking to the bathroom the better.

2nd Suggestion: lose the rectangular shape of the mastering room if you actually plan to master in it. If you do, place the couch in between the mastering desk and the speakers. You want the client to hear as close to possible to what you hear.

Do a rough layout of the equipment in each of the rooms as well. This will help you weed out potential problem of "people flow" when its in full swing.

What? No hottub?

SoMm

[John Sayers]

Looking good. One question. How do you get from the control room to the live room and percussion room to change a mike position???

cheers
JOhn

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

I was going to ask the same thing john, but I figured frederic was still manipulating and
#21 was coming up anyway. But good point. I was also wondering what frederic was doing at the back control room wall? Boy, that much space is wonderful. Oh, I almost forgot, frederic, can you tell me about your mastering room? What are you putting in there? I didn't know you were mastering also. How cool. Maybe you can teach us something about this. Do you master engineer yourself? That end of things is a little vague to me. I've read about it, but don't understand exactly what it is they do and what they do it with Why doesn't the mixer just do it when he has his mix done? I've read that they re-eq among other things. Does that imply that everything on the mix should be flat, as the mastering engineer is going to eq it anyway? Just wondering. Not that I have any need for it. Don't have anything mix, let alone master.
fitz

[frederic]

what frederic was doing at the back control room wall?

The back of the control room is where all the outboards and other crap like that will go. Starting at the top of the sofa towards the ceiling (embedded in the wall), will be several racks with 18-24U of space for this gear. The consoles I am 80% decided on have enough "inboard" stuff that the outboard stuff won't be used constantly, or even often, so putting it behind two doors seemed reasonable to maintain a clean, sleek look in the room. That was my thinking, anyway. Of course Diagram #21 might very well change that

Boy, that much space is wonderful. Oh, I almost forgot, frederic, can you tell me about your mastering room? What are you putting in there?

The mastering room is a bad design Ignore it completely It should not be rectangular.

What I will be putting in there is a smaller, digital mixer (compatible with the ones in the console room, thus drawing on the equipment/technology shared between the two rooms) for stereo mastering. I want the room to be a dead room rather than the console room which will have a little feel to it (not much, just enough not to give the engineer a splitting headache). Since mastering will be digital, there will be a computer, appropriate software, a digital mixer, a compressor and a parametric EQ for tweaking.

I didn't know you were mastering also. How cool. Maybe you can teach us something about this. Do you master engineer yourself? That end of things is a little vague to me.

Mastering is billable, therefore I shall Anyway, I'd be happy to explain. Picture what happens in a recording studio.

The producer has a "vision" of what the end result (album) should depict.
The producer directs the engineer (who often adds a little taste/art to the mix) and the artists towards that goal.

Lets say, as an end result, there are 10 songs. This is where the mastering engineer steps in. The mastering engineer has two goals:

First and foremost is to balance the 10 songs in my example to each other in both EQ and average amplitude. Since the engineer doesn't mix all 10 songs simultaniously, its nearly impossible for the final output to be identical across all 10 songs. Even more impossible when the engineer has been yelled at by the lead singer for 2 hours that her lemonade has too much pulp

Second is to tailor the final stereo recording for the intended audience.

What I mean by this is determine ahead of time who will be listening to the recording. If the goal of the band is to "boink chicks" well, the final mix is created for car stereos, boom boxes and walkmans. If the recording is for airplay, its EQ/compressed a little flatter because most radio stations emphasize low and high frequences already. For airplay, often a lot more compression is used than "normal" because FM stations only have so much headroom. The noise floor for radio stations is astonishing high, and there is little room for dynamic range. For presentation to Sony, BMG, Capital et. al, I know those folks have high end listening rooms with equipment I can only fantasize about, therefore its mastered more flat, more "pure" more sonically correct. A good mastering engineer has the skills/experience to do this and perform consistantly. The skillset is a combination of technical expertise, audio analysis, artistic ability and experience.

An important point to realize is that an engineer is working with many tracks, working down to 7.1, 5.1 or stereo. The mastering engineer starts with the same number of channels that the final recording will have, given to him/her by the engineer. The mastering engineer doesn't add tracks or subtract tracks, just tweaks the audio data

Hope that helped ya

[frederic]

Originally posted by John Sayers
Looking good. One question. How do you get from the control room to the live room and percussion room to change a mike position???

cheers
JOhn

Um, roadies?

Seriously, it didn't really occur to me, thanks for pointing that out!

I guess my control room needs more doors. Diagram #19 has a hallway between the control room front glass and the different live rooms, but I took that out so the view from the console room windows wouldn't be large doors

I shall rework it !!!!

[frederic]

Looks pretty nice. I might add a suggestion or two.

Thank you, and much welcomed/appreciated

1st suggestion: Add another set of doors in the northwest corner of the live room. The less walking to the bathroom the better.

Makes sense! There is a bathroom to the right, or did I not label it correctly?

2nd Suggestion: lose the rectangular shape of the mastering room if you actually plan to master in it. If you do, place the couch in between the mastering desk and the speakers. You want the client to hear as close to possible to what you hear.

In revision #21 it will be shaped more like the console room, you're absolutely right. I think I just got lazy having redone this soooooo many times over the last four weeks. But good eye, thank you again.

Do a rough layout of the equipment in each of the rooms as well. This will help you weed out potential problem of "people flow" when its in full swing.

Great idea, thank you.

What? No hottub?

No, afraid not

However this pro space will allow me to not finish the home studio in the magnitude I was working on, therefore I have more room for one at home

The wife is happy about that, for sure !!!!!!

[frederic]

I've attached an "in between" version of revision #20, slowly becoming #21.

I'm showing this so those of you who are trying to re-engineer their space, you maybe can pick up a few pointers.

Using most cad software, moving double walls, doors, furniture and the like is a REAL pain in the ass. So what I do is this:

The facility is drawn on layer one, protected against resizing, coloring. and any other type of change. This is because the outer shell is what it is, and not going to be changed.

Layer two, is the stuff I've added. The console room, the mastering room, the wall around the tank/breakers, that sorta thing.

Then I save the diagram as "warehouse##" with ## being the revision number.

Now comes the fun part! I create a new layer, and instead of drawing walls, furniture and move stuff around (moving double walls with properly scaled doors and windows is a real pain) I simply draw really thick red lines approximating the new walls and outline of large sized items, like console tables. I move these lines around until I'm happy, then save it as warehouse## +1.

Then I go back, delete everything in the second layer (which is the non-red-line stuff), then draw walls, furniture, windows etc right on top of the red lines forming the new design.

When all done and things are tweaked a bit, I delete the third layer with the red lines, then tweak a little more.

And there you have it, CAD etch-a-sketch I find this less time consuming then moving all the walls around, paying close attention to space and detail, only to dislike it and start over. The redline thing allowed me to print it out (in color) and take a good look at it and go "what the heck was I thinking" and start over with my only having to click delete on a few red lines.

Anyway, enjoy. #21 should be done over this weekend!

[FZfile]

....but....

....not that I know anything at all about REAL studio design, because I dont......

...but I notice that you put the bathroom right adjacent to the live room and the iso booth.

I'm sure that you will have excellent sound isolation (you seem to be very thourough) but flushing toilets and running sinks and rock star singers fooling around with drummers girlfriends do make noise so wouldn't it be just as easy to build the bathroom along the outside wall of that same area and put the couches where the bathroom is????

Although I suppose real rock stars would likely use the couch while the drummer is tracking..

Just a thought.
You have an ambitious and good looking plan there though.

-mike

[frederic]

along the outside wall of that same area and put the couches where the bathroom is????

The reason why the bathroom is there, is because its there now, and the hot, cold and sewer pipes are underneath the concrete slab. So, its not moving

But you're right about flushing... making the bathroom off limits will spinning reels is silly. Maybe I can flip it symetrically (the studio, not the bathroom). Hmmmm, good catch.

Now you all know why I posted the picture - I missed all of this!

Although I suppose real rock stars would likely use the couch while the drummer is tracking..

You have an ambitious and good looking plan there though.

Thank you!

[matty_boy]

Looks great. I am super envious. Are there going to be doors by the loading docks, or is equipment goint to be toted around the building. Also, having two doors into the bathroom by the reception area could be troublesome, but that is more just a pet peeve of mine I guess. Hate the idea of possibly walking in on someone if they forget to lock both doors.

[John Sayers]

Another point frederic is - if you are going to build a control room of this size surely you are going to soffit mount your speakers so you must allow for the speaker depth and installation across the front wall??

cheers
John

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hi frederic, this is probably too soon to think about, although I always think about details when I am designing. Its my thing, as I AM a detailer. Just curious what your doing in regards to actual construction. For one, I haven't seen any space in the rooms designed in for resonators, or diffusers, or other types of room treatments. Have you determined yet what you are going to use? Are you planning any floating walls or floors etc. I'm sure just getting a floor plan down is the first order of business. But from what I've seen on the net in regards to say slot resonators and diffusers, they can take up some serious floor space, at least the ones I've seen. Maybe thats not in your plan. But I thought I would throw that in, just in caseNot that I know shit about where to begin on that end of things. And your so knowledgeable in this regard, I understand you know what your doing. In fact, thats why I am asking, as this will be the first time I've seen an actual room within a room studio being designed
from the point of where your starting. And thats I'm looking forward to seeing how you detail some of the actual construction things, such as all the wall, floor, ceiling,
door, window, connections and any builtin acoustic devices, if any. Are you having contractors do all the work? How about any acoustical devices, are they going to be built by others? I would sure like to see those plans if your planning on acoustical construction. Well, enough questions for now. I'm anxious for you. So you don't have to be. Looking forward to seeing this built step by step!
fitz

[frederic]

Originally posted by John Sayers
Another point frederic is - if you are going to build a control room of this size surely you are going to soffit mount your speakers so you must allow for the speaker depth and installation across the front wall??

cheers
John

I'm an idiot!

[frederic]

Hi frederic, this is probably too soon to think about, although I always think about details when I am designing. Its my thing, as I AM a detailer. Just curious what your doing in regards to actual construction. For one, I haven't seen any space in the rooms designed in for resonators, or diffusers, or other types of room treatments. Have you determined yet what you are going to use?

The rooms that I have drawn on diagrams 1-20 (and now half of 21, which I attached - feel free to laugh at it, I certainly am) I have drawn the wall layouts, but not where resonators and bass traps and the like are going. The assumption I have made is that these items will be affixed to the surfaces of the interior of each room. Bass traps are the exception which just dawned on me when John mentioned soffit mounting the monitors. Of course I'm going to soffit mount the monitors. Did I draw it in? Nope

Are you planning any floating walls or floors etc. I'm sure just getting a floor plan down is the first order of business. But from what I've seen on the net in regards to say slot resonators and diffusers, they can take up some serious floor space, at least the ones I've seen.

Regarding walls and slot resonators, honestly, I haven't gotten that far yet.

The floor is easy - they will all float localized to the indivual room, i.e. the walls will be to the cement floor underneath. Then following John's studio design web page, the floors will float on rubber pucks and the usual wall surfaces that mate with that. Right now i'm just trying to get a basic layout in which I can tweak, having all the rooms I want to squeeze in there, yet have reasonable access to each. I did notice I never included a kitchenette and I tried really hard to not chop up the office area. As you can see from the attached diagram, I'm starting to seriously consider whacking some of that space. With what this is going to cost me in the end, moving a few non-supporting walls is nearly free by comparison.

Above the office space (12' high, 2' thick or thereabouts) is a cement slab with i-beams in it. It only covers the office space, but up there is where I'm going to mount/install the UPS system and batteries, and I'll probably move the office, storage and the like up there as well, and have a nice staircase installed that doesn't take a lot of space. One of those staircases that you travel up 6' on one side, walk around a banister, then travel up the addition 6 feet. In my case, 7' per side. Big stairs actually.

And your so knowledgeable in this regard, I understand

Why do you think my studio is called "MidiMonkey Productions"? I like Midi, and I'm a mere monkey Trust me, I don't know anywhere near as much as I might appear, its all in the writing style.

from the point of where your starting. And thats I'm looking forward to seeing how you detail some of the actual construction things, such as all the wall, floor, ceiling,

The final diagram will have all that. I'm just not there yet, I'm still on the first step - what goes where! And I'm learning quickly what my limitations are. Some things will be expensive to move, such as the bathroom in the center. Moving the walls around is easy, as is turning the fixtures around, but thats the only sewer pipe in the entire place, so the toilet goes there Stuff like that.

Are you having contractors do all the work? How about any acoustical devices, are they going to be built by others? I would sure like to see those plans if your planning on acoustical construction. Well, enough questions for now. I'm anxious for

Undecided. I have an ideal option that I surely cannot afford and while I can do it all myself, I do want the studio completed before the building needs to be condemmed So somewhere in the middle there is a compromising point between what I can afford and how long I'm willing to wait.

The only savings grace is the other side of the building (thats to the right of the diagrams, but not depicted), is already rented out and I got the first check this past tuesday.

And notice I forgot soffits AGAIN and have very poor access from room to room.

What I'm going to do this weekend is stop drawing for a while, and make a list of the rooms I want to put in there, their functions, and what access to other rooms they need. Then from there, maybe I can make some sense of this.

BTW thanks for the compliments on the drawing quality, I'm using boring old Visio. Drag and drop all the way!

[John Sayers]

Hey frederic don't get me wrong - I'm not meaning to be critical - what you are doing is the way to go - keep trying different layouts and pick out the parts that work - I do it all the time. Design s grow - they are like a plant that starts from a seed and eventually develops into a fully grown tree.

keep at it - you'll get it eventually

cheers
John

[John Sayers]

BTW - try reversing your control room design shape (both control rooms) - the walls should splay away from the speakers. as you've drawn them they are splaying inwards as opposed to outwards.

cheers
john

[frederic]

Originally posted by John Sayers
Hey frederic don't get me wrong - I'm not meaning to be critical - what you are doing is the way to go - keep trying different layouts and pick out the parts that work - I do it all the time. Design s grow - they are like a plant that starts from a seed and eventually develops into a fully grown tree.

keep at it - you'll get it eventually

cheers
John

Oh, no worries mate, your comments, criticism are most welcome, as is anyone elses. I didn't take it the wrong way, no worries at all!

[frederic]

Originally posted by John Sayers
BTW - try reversing your control room design shape (both control rooms) - the walls should splay away from the speakers. as you've drawn them they are splaying inwards as opposed to outwards.

cheers
john

I'm going to soffit them per your and others suggestion.

Splay them away from each other, meaning rotate the control rooms approximately 180 degrees so the monitor backs are towards each other, or change the wall behind the monitors so instead of being shaped like a ball, the monitor ends are a concave?

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Hi frederic, something just occurred to me. I know you are a skilled designer. I can see that. And I am sure that your applying for permits. You mentioned in a previous post,
that you had a conversation with a local BID rep(I think). I am REAL curious, as to the final legal documents you end up having to provide them. This is why.
In the county I live in(Sacramento Co., California) ANY new, alteration or modification
of a building zoned Commercial MUST meet title 24 requirements. For those of you who do not know what Title 24 is in regards to, it is a Federal building code, that states, countys, and incorperated areas of the USA can adopt as a preclude to thier own codes. And right off the bat, I want to state that I am no expert, architect, engineer or any kind of licenced practitioner of these fields, so please take what I say from that perspective. I'm speaking purely from experience in regards to this. So. Title 24 are a set of codes designed to keep certain design and construction in COMPIANCE with the law, as it relates to the Handicapped. Now please, no flames yet This is purely out of my desire to learn. Not preach. Having had my own professional relationship with a company who routinely had to comply with these codes, throughout the western united states, I am curious as to your local compliance requirements. Here, these codes require you to submit a set of construction documents that display your intent as to complying with Title 24. Now I know this HR.com, but as you ARE designing for commercial occupation, then that really hightend my desire to see firsthand how a studio that must meet these requirements is designed to do so. You mentioned earlier that your first criteria that you were seeking to satisfy was "people flow". Here, that is EXACTLY what Title 24 pertains to. And that is, to design commercial building egress and facilitys, so not to impede access to these areas of commercial occupation to the handicapped. Now, I know this may seem odd to some of you, and of no interest at all
as you are only interested in what you can do to your home studio. However, in this county, you MUST address these issues, or you will face wasting your time and money if you are in a commercial space. Usually, you won't get so far as construction, as any
space in this county is under surveilence by BID officials, who pretty much know any signs of unpermitted occupation and or construction. And who, if they catch you, can and will lock your space up under Sherrif suppervision if you are foolish enough to defy thier authority to do so, by continuing to occupy and or construct, rent out, run a business out of or any other use of a building that is open to the public, with out complying with the law.
Excuse this book. How else can I ask these questions? My interest in this is solely out of professional curiosity. I AM a designer. Maybe not pro studio, but interior compliant design is one the areas of design I am in constant contact with, but not licenced to practice, as a business, as it is governed by the state professions act. But in regards to my position as a professional designer, I still have to personally design, using Title 24 as one of the criteria for successful commercial interior design. Commercial Studios in this county must comply. And thats not all. Every building has an occupancy load. And this load determines how you interpret Title 24. Frederic, do you have to comply with Title 24 for your commercial studio? I have yet to see anything published in regards to how professioanl studio designers meet this challange. Most people I have talked to are taken aback with this. Huh! Whats he talking about. Handicapped. There are no handicapped people seeking a job in a studio! This is for wanabe and actual rock stars! How dare him. Handicapped. What would they do? That sort of thing. Sometimes I get the feeling that this field has somehow isolated itself from that, being associated with "art" and "stardom" and such, although I am a musician also, so please don't take offence to that. This is out of pure interest. Any comments other than buzz off will be appreciated too. Thanks for your patience and a grain of salt frederic. No offence intended. Only interest.
fitz

[frederic]

occupation to the handicapped. Now, I know this may seem odd to some of you, and of no interest at all as you are only interested in what you can do to your home studio.

Actually, I am extremely interested in this code for many reasons.

Regarding handicap laws, the facility won't require more than one designated handicapped parking spot. This is because it has first floor access and the second floor (the slab above the office space) is undeveloped. If I change that, then I will need to shell out a lot of money for an elevator, or ensure that all handicapped employees work on the first floor in equivilent facilites as whats available upstairs. Thats about as much of the law as I know.

Regarding people flow, well, thats extremely important to me. I'm a big fan of ergonomics in all senses of the word, and intend not to skimp in that regard in designing the facility.

I'm trying to achieve a really good flow for humans of any designation (employees or clients), but also keep access to the two control rooms controlled.

Several things I deem important:

1. People wandering in cannot get past the reception area unless I allow them to. Since I won't have a receptionist/office manager for a loooooooooong time, the double doors between the reception area and the rest of the facility will be electronically locked to the outside. The inside will of course have fire escape pushbars for safety.

2. I have two control rooms, and I absolutely do not want clients in there unless I decide to. If they pay to, fabulous, they're in. But I am very comfortable with the idea of having "them" on that side of the double glass, and "us" on this side of the same glass. Too many people in there will make it hot, crowded, and its certainly a distraction.

3. Flow. The facility needs to be easy to navigate for customers. I don't mind if I or any guest engineers have to navigate an extra door or two, but the flow of the facility must be such that customers don't get lost, don't lose their stuff in some unknown room, that sorta thing.

construct, rent out, run a business out of or any other use of a building that is open to the public, with out complying with the law.

While I don't know that particular law well at all, there are two ways to comply. Following it, and making donations I will be following it.

Actually, I have an architect that owes me a huge favor, so he and I have already discussed what his repayment will be. I give him my visio diagrams on paper with measurements, and he'll convert them to geographically legal diagrams complete with electrical, plumbing and whatever else the planning board needs to issue me my $650 in permits for all the different kinds of work.

Before I shelled out the cash for the building, I did go before the planning board in that town, and sought approval conceptionally for the type of business I wanted to run. Aside from a slew of positive comments I received, I could see on their faces they were clearly not opposed, at all. I think this is because there has been a rash of dunkin donut type places going up every few blocks in that particular town, as well as other types of businesses in the area that my building is in that could have taken it over - mostly industrial hellholes. So I presented it ("Spun" if you have a sales background) that my company/business would be improving the neighborhood by bringing in a new class of business.

Perception is reality - dont ever forget it

Excuse this book. How else can I ask these questions? My interest in this is solely out of professional curiosity.

You (and everyone else) are welcomed to ask, say, comment, refute, disagree, help, improve or laugh at anything I say, draw, post or otherwise share. If I wasn't interested in this dialog I wouldn't be a member of this BBS. I find this enlightening and enjoyable. Even if I don't take certain advice, I know I'm stubborn (and I write harshly too!) but its all mean as good.

professional designer, I still have to personally design, using Title 24 as one of the criteria for successful commercial interior design. Commercial Studios in this county must comply.

Do you know of a web link or where I can obtain a pdf of this title 24? While I probably have it covered, I have this need to fully understand my surroundings to the nth degree. If you have it handy, if not, I'll ask my owes-me-a-favor architect to provide it.

And thats not all. Every building has an occupancy load. And this load determines how you interpret Title 24. Frederic, do you have to comply with Title 24 for your commercial studio? I have yet to see anything published in regards to how

Here is what I know, and I must say its not complete information.

Once I present my design for my side of the facility the planning board will nitpick it until they are satisfied I've met all the codes. They have a consulting architect that I have to pay a fee to for approval of my design. Once the design is finalized and approved, I'm assigned an occupancy specification for the entire facility, as well as specific areas. For example, I might have a 100 person occupancy, but there may be a limit in the console room to four, because it only has one exit and is behind three sets of doors. Made up example but you get the idea I'm sure. The only signs/documents I have to display in the entrance or some place obvious is the business license, the fire inspection, and the occupancy certificate. I will also display police boosters

Handicapped. There are no handicapped people seeking a job in a studio! This is for wanabe and actual rock stars!

Statistically, I would agree with you, however like you said, I'm required by law to make my facility handicapped accessable and to be honest, I really have no issue doing so. For this facility, I can comply with that law by painting and signing a single parking spot, and putting a handrail in the bathrooms. Very easy to comply with, and certainly not something I would ever fight.

and such, although I am a musician also, so please don't take offence to that.

No offense taken. None at all

Anyway, to my diagram, I'm still suffering with flow. And whether I should move the office/conference room upstairs onto the 2nd floor partial slab. Ugh.

I think I'm going to take a little break for a while

[frederic]

As junk removal started this weekend, I got a phone call at about 7am. The "junk crew", who was hired to collect the 3 stories of racks and junk noticed one section of one rack had some seemingly expensive-looking things on it.

I took a quick shower and headed over, and found two Porsche 944 turbo engines complete, a small CNC machine, and some fancy-smanchy tools.

I called up the guy who is renting the other side for a machine shop, read off the models/makes of the machines as well as the porsche engines, and got a cool $9000 for it all. So the junk crew is going to forklift that stuff to his side

I just lowered my construction costs by 9 grand. Today is a good day

I'm actually suprised the junk removal people didn't take it, actually. They were pretty cool to do what they did. Their services were acquired on a handshake, so they could have without any regard for me at all.

Underneath one of the racks they also discovered two capped sewer pipes and three capped water pipes, seemingly setup for a toilet and a sink, so I can shuffle anything around, I have a second bathroom locacation without having to cut into the slab. Assuming I like where it is. With my luck, its dead center of the room

There's also sewer and water pipes on the second floor slab as is the furnace, hot water heater and such. I never went up on the slab because there is no ladder or stairs. The junk crew brought a ladder so I got to poke around up there. There is an old golf cart up there and a lot of other really weird, but probably not to useful stuff!

Oh well.