One of the nicest, and most beautiful, recording studios I ever worked
in was in the remains of the old California Hotel (?) in San Francisco
in the late 60s/early 70s. It was south of Market, on a corner, right
across the street from what was to become the southwest corner of the
Moscone Center. You entered from an alley at the back.
Anyhow, the building had been gutted in the center to the roof and the
ceiling elevation was around 60 feet straight up from the studio floor.
Studio was probably about 25'x30' or so, plus the booth. There were
balconies on each floor, plants hanging from the skylight far above and
plenty of rococo wall decorations (which possibly helped with any
standing waves). Man, the room BREATHED! I walked into the center of the
space, clapped my hands once and got a big grin. Perfect.
The studio didn't last long. It was gone by the time the building was razed.
Malcolm

*******

On 12/30/2015 1:57 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
>> From the NY Times:
> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/29/arts/design/sound-architecture.html
>
>
> The worst offender as far as terrible sound-space design, seems to be
> franchised casual-dining restaurants and coffee shops. Always too loud
> and boomy for my liking. I was in a bar/restaurant yesterday in
> Danbury CT, a place built into the end of a strip mall but with
> surprising character. There were 8 of us at the table, and a bunch of
> somewhat raucus guys at the bar. Yet is was easy to hear all
> conversation at the table. I got to wondering why. Answers: the
> bartender didn't have music blaring too loud for conversation, it was
> just some sonic background noise; and, most importantly, the place's
> ceiling went all the way up, no tiles or other height-reducer. They
> built their decorating sceme vertical, and so took advantage of
> keeping it open up to the metal roof beams. This created a room for
> the sound to dissapate even though the space was narrow and
> rectangular. Compare this to a typical Starbucks, some of which are
> like being in echo chambers with a massive "boom bump" in the
> frequencies of loud male voices.
>
> -- Tom Fine