The new studio at night.

Now that almost all of the lighting fixtures are in place, I was able to drop by after dark yesterday and take a load of well-lit photos. (The iPhone doesn't have a flash, and likes lots of light.)

Let's start in the breakroom. Here are some shots of the cabinets, with openings for the refrigerator, dishwasher, stove and microwave. All the comforts of home. The wall color (for you, Elaine) is called Wheat Grass.




In an earlier post, I'd mentioned the beautiful lobby display case designed by our architect. Now that the lighting is in place, you can begin to get a sense of just how cool it's going to look. The slots are for laminated glass shelves, which are being cut in one piece to conform to the angles of the display. The front edges of the shelves will be supported by slender cables extending top to bottom, with industrial looking grommets attaching above and below the glass. Then a pattern consisting of strips of white oak will go over the painted sheetrock, with white oak trim all around. (You can see the beginnings at the bottom of the display.)

I think it's a great design on two levels. It'll look great as well as maintain clear sight lines to the displayed items. Our logo will go in the black space above, which is lit by really cool contemporary track lights. (Of course, I picked them out - so I would say that.)



For energy efficiency, all overhead lighting fixtures in the common areas use compact florescent bulbs. I like the effect, which you can get a sense of in these shots of the lobby and various corridors. It feels bright and cheery. (Studios don't have to feel like caves, you know.) As you can see, drywall touch up is underway before the second coat of paint.





And now on to more geeky details of the studios and control rooms.

Studio designer David Rochester has decided to use hanging panels in many of our bass traps. These have affectionately been dubbed "Flapulators" (Trademark pending, I'm sure.) He has explained to me how they work and why he made this choice. But once again I fear descending into geeky detail madness. (You should have heard some of the comments after my Hemholtz Resonator post!) Plus I wouldn't want to give up any of David's trade secrets.

In this sequence from Studio 1, you can see the bass trap cavity minus the lower Flapulators, the process of hanging them, and a finished trap. The back sides of all the Flapulators are covered with rock wool, but David has selectively left some of the front surfaces hard to add some diffusion. The entire trap cavity will be fabric covered using the Novawall system.





Here are a couple of shots of Studio 1's back wall, including a close up of the the HVAC return plenum. Framing to the left and right of the curved stone wall will support oak diffuser panels installed at angles.




And turning to the control rooms, if you've been following our progress you've seen photos of the rear wall bass traps under construction. Here's a control room with all Flapulators installed. The framing in the center will hold six 2'x2' wooden diffuser panels.



This wall will also be fabric covered using Novawall.

So lots of pics for this post. We're officially one month from move-in, and things are progressing right on schedule so far. Another tip of the hat to Denver Construction Company and our first-rate Construction Superintendent Jerry Hyde.

Until next time...don't try building those Flapulators at home, kids. Someone could get hurt.