NYU OPENS $6.5M AUDIO TEACHING FACILITY
The centerpiece of the space is a new recording studio that's dedicated to James L. Dolan — a member of the dean’s council and the president/CEO of media company Cablevision. The room is outfitted with a 48-channel Solid State Logic Duality console and a custom 10.2 surround monitoring solution from Dangerous Music.
Gensler and the Walters-Storyk Design Group designed the multi-function space, in which labs can be converted to isolation booths or smaller recording rooms as project demands change. The complex’s immersive audio lab boasts 16 Genelec speaker on a reconfigurable overhead grid, along with two Genelec subwoofers. Here, students can experiment with creating soundtracks for theme parks, museums or other interactive venues.
The facility is predominantly Mac based, and its lab workstations are loaded with applications that include Pro Tools, Digital Performer and Logic.
WSDG architect John Storyk says the project took two years to complete, from planning through final construction. On a tour of the space, he noted the transparency of the design, which allows natural light to flow through rooms and hallways into the sixth floor’s internal rooms. He also pointed out the sixth floor’s low ceilings, which challenged the design team with containing the low-frequencies.
Final cost of the build is somewhere around $6.5 million, and NYU students will begin using the space in earnest this Spring.