“Serendipity” is my all-time favorite word. Although many people just call it luck, it’s been working for WSDG and me for the past 55 years. It never fails to bemuse and enthuse me, and I never take it for granted.
The Early Beginnings
Flashback to summer 1968 where I’m just out of Princeton’s Architecture School, playing piano in a struggling blues/rock band and standing in line for a cone in a Greenwich Village ice cream dispensary…. I pick up a copy of a free “alternative newspaper,” scan the help wanted section and find an ad seeking a “volunteer carpenter to work on a new downtown club.” I throw a dime into the payphone, connect with one of the young entrepreneurs funding this rash investment and get the gig, along with the understanding that they’ll consider some of my design ideas for the interior of this “happening” new venue. Six months later, “Cerebrum” has taken off like a rocket. It’s the hot spot of the moment! One night, Jimi Hendrix ambles in and is quickly entranced by my fanciful cylindrical design elements. The next day, his office has tracked me down and invited me in for a meeting. Serendipity?
Long story short, Jimi’s building a club of his own and wants me to design it. I tour the site, get rolling on sketches and things are moving along smooth as frozen custard — until Jimi’s producer/engineer Eddie (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc.) Kramer convinces him that his $200K-plus investment in a “club” would be much better spent on building a personal recording studio. And I’m fired.
“Wait!” I explain, “I can design the studio! We’re all part of the same Peace, Love & Don’t Bogart That Joint Generation.” So, they green light my alt-design idea and set me up for a tour of N.Y.’s local recording studios. I’d never been in one before. However, as a quick study, I ask the right questions, get a sense of what needs to be done acoustically and how to get it done right, and I’m off and running. Eighteen months later, Electric Lady Studios opens up to rave reviews. Sadly, Jimi didn’t live to use it more than a couple of times before he died; however, ELS is still turning out hits for major artists to this day.
Building WSDG
Serendipity has remained in my corner throughout my career. WSDG’s team of designers, systems installation experts, project managers and now partners and co- owners that developed over the past fifty-five years never fails to astound me. Admittedly, WSDG was a slow build. Starting with a professional recording studio design client base, we ‘serendipitously’ attracted a number of like-minded music, recording, architecture and acoustics enthusiasts. Men and women who love music, understand recording needs and principles, and have a handle on the techniques and technologies required to create ideal recording environments. And our client base expanded to other fields such as education, live-performance venues, business offices, auditoriums, restaurants, sports stadiums, Broadway theaters, and many others that we’d never have imagined at the outset of this amazing trip.
Serendipity has fueled our growth in many ways, but one of the most surprising aspects in my journey has been as a lecturer on architecture and acoustics at many schools around the country. I love talking with students and not coincidentally, have discovered many of my (now) long-term business partners as students attending my lectures at schools like Berklee College of Music in Boston, NYU at Washington Square Park in N.Y.’s Greenwich Village, Full Sail in Winter Park, Fla., UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles, and many others.
While I never intended to build a global business, my ‘serendipitous’ lecturing journey has brought me together with many invaluable associates from around the world, men who have been with me for fifteen, even twenty years or more, and who have evolved into experts in our field, and irreplaceable business associates. Dirk Noy, a young student at Full Sail University had arrived from Basel, Switzerland to study Acoustics and studio design. He approached me after my lecture to inquire about an internship at our primary office in Highland, N.Y. just outside of Poughkeepsie. We brought him on board after graduation, and he quickly proved himself an extremely competent designer and acoustician. When he decided to return to Switzerland for family reasons, we suggested that he open a satellite office in Basel.
That was nearly twenty years ago, and our Basel office recently acquired ADA Acoustics a leading design firm based in Berlin. Their European connectivity has introduced us to many prestigious projects in performance venues, broadcast and educational assignments, medical and business offices and even the occasional recording studio.
Forging Meaningful Connections
I met partner/director of business management Sergio Molho in Argentina, where I was lecturing at an AES (Audio Engineering Society) event. Sergio was a young studio owner/musician who volunteered to help me out with a technical problem I encountered as I was setting up for my presentation. He somehow managed to find me the speakers and other equipment I needed to make my lecture, and as I got to know him, I recognized his “can do” attitude as very similar to my own approach to problem solving. We then quickly developed a solid working relationship. Sergio joined WSDG sometime in 1988 and has been an exceptional associate for more than 35 years. He has traveled around the world for us, from Saudi Arabia to Africa, throughout Latin America and North America. Without a doubt, Sergio is tireless and infinitely resourceful and a key component of our business operation.
Meanwhile, I met Beth Walters socially back in the ’80s and immediately realized that I had designs on her myself. As with so many serendipitous moments in my life, I recognized our firm’s desperate need for a full-time infinitely creative interior designer. Beth fit the bill perfectly. She quickly became the ”W” in the Walters-Storyk Design Group.
Not long after Beth and I were wed, we were introduced to a detail-oriented, take-no-prisoners dynamo named Nancy Flannery. Nancy had run the Woodstock-based office of Albert Grossman, a world-class entertainment industry business manager whose clients included Bob Dylan, The Band, Todd Rundgren, Janice Joplin and many other superstars. Nancy had all the insight and chutzpah required to make sure our invoices were paid on time and our suppliers were taking care of our needs. Nancy was the one employee we totally counted on, and the entire WSDG 60-plus member global team was devastated when she shockingly died of a heart attack. She’d been named CFO/Partner some 15 years ago, and she ran our business with an almost military-like precision and a generous smile. To say she terribly missed is a deep understatement. She was the best.
The Road Ahead for WSDG
Nancy’s death leads me into the last and possibly most important section of this article. As mentioned earlier, virtually all our associates around the world have much in common. Nearly all are accomplished musicians, well-versed in computer, audio, broadcast, acoustic and architectural design technology. They share a mutual love of music and are consummate perfectionists, totally committed to “getting it right, on time and on budget.” As Beth and I “matured,” we began thinking about creating a second generation WSDG management team able to carry on the WSDG business model into the future. About six years ago, we came up with a plan to share our successful firm by naming five key staff members as partners. To that end, we hammered out a program which provided them with equity shares and corporate titles. The majority of them had come onboard as interns and had been with us for more than 15 years.
Presently, Josh Morris is our partner/COO, Matt Ballos, partner/director of architectural technology, Romina Larregina, partner/director of production, Jonathan Bickoff, partner/project engineer and Will Brown, partner/project manager. We will continue our involvement with WSDG on a reduced time basis but will always be available for advice. This program has been in operation for over six years, and by this point, it has proven to be effective, efficient and invigorating. It’s great to know this crack team will be carrying on our tradition. And it all began with an ice cream cone.
Click on “View Slideshow” for additional images of WSDG installations. All photos courtesy of WSDG.
John Storyk is founding partner of WSDG, a global architectural/acoustic design firm with offices in New York; Boston; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Miami; Washington, D.C.; Basel, Switzerland; Berlin, Germany; Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Beijing, China; Bogota, Colombia; Mexico City, Mexico; and Mumbai, India.
