Black Iris Music is a premier music and recording collaborative, creating background tracks and music for the advertising and marketing industry. With offices in L.A, New York and Richmond, they recently contracted Sprenkle & Company to up-fit a historic property for their new location on W. Broad Street in Richmond.

The property is a 3 story historic building with original hardwoods, elevator, ceiling and decorative moulding. The goal was to build new acoustically treated studios on the second and third floors, to include tracking rooms, isolation booths, and control rooms. The particular challenge was how to eliminate ambient noise in the control and isolation rooms to allow optimal conditions for recording and mixing. In addition to the recording rooms, Black Iris had a number of offices and personal spaces including writing lounges where they could write and compose.

The design goal of the project was to maintain the historic feel and aesthetic while modernizing the structure and functionality to allow an eclectic mix of old and new. An entire wall of large black bookcases grounds the 2nd-3rd floor mezzanine. Included is an updated kitchen and seating bar area with carrera marble and black cabinets. Contrasting this are the rough, partially restored hardwoods reflecting the character, age and history of the building.

Sprenkle & Company was able to successfully complete the project, marrying a modernized recording studio within a 100 year old building, preserving the historic appeal and integrity of the space.