The Choi Family Music Production Center at Occidental College

Situated in the college’s Booth Hall music school building, the new facility replaces an increasingly rarely used music library.

The architectural program placed in the basement space includes a fully operational recording studio, a connected adjacent control room and a 16-student music and media computer lab, as well as auxiliary spaces and offices. The high ceilings were ideal for the acoustics of the planned spaces. The partially subterranean location helped create an efficient soundproofing scheme. Interior acoustic treatment was added in the form of vertical wood strips and fabric panels, mostly in the vibrant orange colors of the university.

The control room layout enables students to sit in on professional recording sessions. During class lectures in the room, students are actively engaged, taking turns in the captain’s chair, setting up microphones in the tracking room, and assisting with the engineering.

The production lab has an instructor’s lectern desk and 16 student computers, each equipped with a suite of up-to-date software. A connected isolation booth enables students to record voices and individual instruments.

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