Concordia University Irvine's New WSDG-Designed Studio Teaching Complex Concordia University Irvine (CUI)'s recently completed WSDG Walters-Storyk Design Group-designed recording studio/teaching facility has quickly proved itself a locus for music production education within the campus's new 37,500-sq.-ft. Borland-Manske Center. Commissioned in 2017, and funded by private donations, the $35M complex became fully operational in the fall of 2019. At the dedication CUI assistant dean, schools of arts and sciences, Jeff Held (D.M.A.) remarked, "The Borland-Manske Center is a premium music learning center for Southern California that will help draw top students from across the country and around the world to Irvine. Our students spend every day immersed in the highest quality sound, working with the finest music production tools in the industry." The 1,110-sq.-ft. complex houses a recording, teaching and rehearsal space. Thanks to Concordia's proximity to the Los Angeles music industry, the studio is providing a facility for students, professors, and artists to collaborate in an environment that meets the music industry's highest technical and acoustical standards. Choral and instrumental ensembles, along with students in the Music Department's newest major, commercial music, are engaging the recording studio, which is anchored by a new 32-channel Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console. The comprehensive curriculum is designed to prepare students for careers in musical performance, songwriting, composing for media (TV, film and gaming), and music production. Concordia's music program offers a bachelor of arts degree for music majors with concentrations in commercial music, composition, church music, music education, instrumental, piano, and vocal performance. WSDG COO/project manager, Joshua Morris reports that the firm also designed the acoustics for Concordia's new Borland-Manske Center, and that WSDG systems design engineer, Judy Elliot Brown and project engineer, Andy Swerdlow also played key roles in the project. WSDG has created educational recording complexes for such major schools as NYU and Berklee College of Music, and has provided integral acoustic designs for NYC's Jazz at Lincoln Center and Switzerland's KKL Luzern Concert Hall as well as recording studios for Jimi Hendrix, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, and Bruce Springsteen. "CUI's new Borland-Manske Center was a particularly ambitious assignment," Morris says. "The main floor houses a 2,250-sq.-ft. orchestra hall, a 1,900-sq.-ft. choral rehearsal hall, a percussion room, and a piano instruction room. The lower floor features an 820-sq.-ft. live recording room with three isolation (ISO ) booths, a 290-sq.-ft. control room, a spacious 835-sq.-ft. classroom, nine practice rooms, an open office suite, faculty offices, an event space, conference and breakout rooms. The studio is linked to the orchestral and choral rehearsal rooms, allowing multiple ensembles to record simultaneously. The top floor accommodates practice rooms, and faculty studios for special practice and instructional tutorials," Morris concludes. Overall design for the three-level Borland-Manske Center was provided by Bauer Architects of Newport Beach, California. Construction was completed by Irvine-based Snyder Langston, and AVV integration was provided by Procraft. "Concordia University Irvine's new education and production complex represents the epitome of contemporary audio education and production planning," remarked WSDG founding partner, John Storyk, "Our design engineers engaged acoustic modeling, measurement and instrumentation tests, and programs to predict and 'pre-tune' the acoustics and auralization throughout the building . We are confident that this facility will play a significant role in preparing the next generation of educators, musicians, recording artists and production professionals for 21st century careers." 
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