wichplace

2709 East 25th Street, Minneapolis. A low building behind an ivy wall. No sign on it. From the street, nothing marks the place.

Before it held a room that absorbs 99.99% of sound, it was Sound 80, the first multi-track digital recording studio. Bob Dylan cut part of Blood on the Tracks there in 1974. Prince made his first recordings there in 1977. Lipps Inc cut Funkytown there in 1980.

In 1990 Orfield Laboratories bought the building and moved in an anechoic chamber. Guinness certified it the quietest place on earth three times, 2004, 2012, 2021. -24.9 dBA. Stand in it long enough and you start hearing your own body.

Same address. One room built to catch every note, another built to swallow every sound. Thirty years apart.

Sources: public records, including Wikipedia and the institutions' own sites (Orfield Laboratories, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, Timberline Lodge, Major League Baseball, the U.S. Census Bureau).