The design for this post-production audio-film facility combines state-of-the-art technology with luxurious interiors and dramatic views of the city. The facility occupies 1,250 square feet on the third floor of a masonry loft building in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood.

The program required a control room with a completely accurate, full-frequency audio monitoring environment to provide precise assessment of high-fidelity audio soundtracks. The location challenged the designers with its tight column grids and limited ceiling heights. To create the soundproof environment required by the client, the architects designed a space within the space: an interior structure, containing the control room and the studio, floats within the existing building.

The control room features a parabolic ceiling of maple plywood floating above the console area, concealing a video projector and indirect lighting fixtures while directing sound to the rear of the room. Sound attenuation fabric conceals the speaker systems; carpeting and rubber flooring control sound distribution. Film images can be projected onto the main control room screen and onto small monitors at desks scattered throughout the space. There is a private work area for clients, as well as a small machine room for computer servers and racks of audio equipment.