Digital Animation Studio

In just six and a half months, MATT transformed a dark, windowless warehouse into a dynamic, fun and inspiring workplace for creative artists with a building that won an AIA Award for its simple, elegant design. The project, an adaptive reuse of a concrete warehouse with a brick façade, includes two 50-seat screening rooms, two recording studios, two control rooms, 16 editorial suites, a training lab room with a computer access floor, a machine room, a café, a new gym and a server room. The Digital Animation Studio project combines two adjacent properties into a single campus with a joint main entrance, parking lot and shared landscaped areas. The architect wanted to expose the building’s waffle-slab ceiling as part of the project’s interior design, so MATT placed as many of the conduit runs, ductwork and plumbing as possible on the rooftop, minimizing the amount of exposed equipment in the ceiling. In order to avoid significant vibration interference from the nearby train route, MATT installed a proprietary floor isolation system in the control room and recording rooms. The system consists of dual concrete slabs with puck-sized, vibration-absorbing spacers that place a two-inch air gap between layers.