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| Company type | Recording studio |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Headquarters | 441 West 53rd Street, New York City ,U.S. |
| Owner |
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| Website | powerstation |
Power Station at BerkleeNYC is a recording studio located at 441 West 53rd Street in theHell's Kitchen neighborhood ofMidtown Manhattan in New York City. It was originally founded in 1977 asPower Station and known asAvatar Studios from 1996 to 2017. Renowned for its exceptional acoustics, the studio has been the site of hundreds of gold, platinum, andGrammy Award-winning recordings.[1][2]
ProducerTony Bongiovi and formerMediasound Studios co-workerengineer Bob Walters partnered to open the recording studio, putting together a team of people that included engineerEd Stasium, Ed Evans, andBob Clearmountain.[3] They located an abandoned building at 441 West53rd Street, betweenNinth andTenth avenues, in New York City'sHell's Kitchen neighborhood, which Bongiovi purchased from New York City for $360,000 as part of a building rehabilitation program.[4] Bongiovi, Walters, and their team worked with Stephen B. Jacobs Associates to design a studio that would apply Bongiovi's ideas regardingacoustics, naming the new studio Power Station in acknowledgment of the building's origins as a formerConsolidated Edisonpower station.[5][6]
Power Station opened in 1977,[7][8] The studio's largest room, Studio A, is apine-paneled 52 x 48 foot space with 35-foot ceilings and several isolation booths and a control room equipped with a 40-channelNeve 8068mixing console.[9][10]
The new studio became a favorite for theNile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards projectChic, which recorded several hit albums with Clearmountain at Power Station in the late 1970s. Chic's production team also collaborated onSister Sledge's hit albumWe Are Family andDiana Ross' best-selling albumDiana at the studios.[11] In 1979,Ian Hunter recorded his albumYou're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic at the studio with members ofBruce Springsteen'sE Street Band as the backing band.[12] In 1979 Springsteen himself came to the Power Station to work on his albumThe River. Other albums recorded at the studio in 1980 includedDavid Bowie'sScary Monsters (and Super Creeps),Carly Simon'sCome Upstairs,Suicide'sRic Ocasek-producedsophomore album, andDire Straits'Making Movies, co-produced by a youngJimmy Iovine.
Choosing Nile Rodgers to produce his next album, David Bowie returned to Power Station to recordLet's Dance, which became Bowie's best-selling album.[13] Dire Straits returned to the studio forLove over Gold (1982), andJohn Waite recorded hisdebut solo album there the same year.Roxy Music recordedAvalon at Power Station with Clearmountain, andPat Metheny Group recorded the first of many albums they would record at the studios. In 1982,Jim Steinman produced two songs at Power Station that would simultaneously top the Billboard charts the following year:Bonnie Tyler's biggest career hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart"[14] andAir Supply's "Making Love Out of Nothing at All".
Mark Knopfler returned to the studio to record his award-winning soundtrack albumLocal Hero, andBob Dylan recordedInfidels at Power Station in 1983. 1984 marked the recording ofBon Jovi's debut studio album, the band's frontman no other than studio co-founder Bongiovi's cousinJon Bon Jovi, who had been working at the studio since 1980. The same year, Bruce Springsteen recorded much of his hit albumBorn in the U.S.A. at Power Station, andMadonna chose to recordLike a Virgin with Nile Rodgers at the studio.[15] In 1984, asupergroup composed ofRobert Palmer,Chic drummerTony Thompson, andAndy andJohn Taylor ofDuran Duran came to the studio to record a one-off album, subsequently naming boththe group andits debut album The Power Station after the studio where it was recorded.[4] In 1986,Cyndi Lauper recordedTrue Colors andPeter Gabriel recordedSo at Power Station. Other artists recording at the studio in the 1980s includedKeith Jarrett,Bill Frisell,Grace Jones,Lou Reed,James Taylor,Bobby McFerrin, andEurythmics.
In the 1990s, Jim Steinman returned to Power Station withMeat Loaf for the recording ofBat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, and the studio became popular with jazz musicians, includingJohn Scofield,Joshua Redman, andDiana Krall. By 1995, over 400 gold and platinum records had been recorded at Power Station, and that year, 9 of the 13 major Grammy award winners were recorded and/or mixed at Power Station.[10]
In May 1996, Chieko and Kirk Imamura bought the entire building from Bongiovi in a bankruptcy auction for $5.4 million,[1] and continued to run the business as Avatar Studios (under the Avatar Entertainment Corporation).[7]
In 2015, the studio was up for sale again, but the owners would only consider offers from buyers who want to keep it as a recording studio.[1]
In September 2017, with the support of the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and the Economic Development Corporation,Pete Muller withBerklee College of Music acquired the studios[16] and renamed them Power Station at BerkleeNYC.[17] The studio reopened in 2020 after a full renovation, while maintaining the studio spaces.
In 1995, Sonalysts, which had begun as anunderwater acoustics research company, licensed the Power Station's design and naming rights from Bongiovi and Walters. The company built a perfect replica of the original Studio A inWaterford, Connecticut, as a part of the new Power Station New England.[18]
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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40°45′59″N73°59′22″W / 40.76639°N 73.98944°W /40.76639; -73.98944