We are told that several tenants of the building are concerned with the odor emanating from our studio. Having no details about Grahame's project, the tenants speculate as to its origin. The odor, to which at this point we are quite accustomed, generates various stories. To quell those, the building owner familiar with the project, asks to visit the studio.
Quite touched with the beauty of Grahame's project, the building manager guides us on how to alleviate the undesirable odor from this client sensitive environment.
From the earliest stages of the project, there are numerous boxes of baking soda located across the room. Odor absorbing mineral rocks hang by the doors. A circulating fan works 24/7 in our studio.
Additional concerns are brought forth from a clothing designer who neighbors our studio on the back end, also right by the air vents.
The building manager is determined to help and provides more tips to prevent the foul smell escaping our studio and permeating throughout the building.
We seal the hole (close to the vent) in the wall. Closing the vent would cause the room to get extremely hot. Not sure how the heat would affect the still lives, we compromise and cover the vent partially. We bring in a HEPA air purifier to the studio.
All that - not much in terms of desired results.
We are told we need to circulate the air in the hallway.
Guided again, we place two box fans in the hallway. Not enough power to the fans.
We buy two high velocity fans and place them strategically in the hallway to push the air towards a window.
One more (heavy duty - old style) fan from the building owner to further push the air out, and two exhaust fans in the window.
The exhaust fans are too loud for the tenant next to the window. We shut the fans off at 1:00 p.m. At 6:00 p.m. either the building staff, the artist leaving the studio next to the window, or I turn the exhaust fans on.