LOS ANGELES – Standing in the photo-lined hallway, you can almost hear the history.

One picture shows Frank Sinatra crooning into a sleek, silver microphone, his fedora tipped back. In another, Nat King Cole sits in front of a music stand in a crisp white V-neck sweater.

Both photos were taken only a few feet away, a half-century ago, in the wood and glass studios of Capitol Records' famed cylindrical tower in Hollywood – familiar to tourists from around the globe as resembling a giant stack of vinyl records (or now, perhaps, CDs).

Capitol Studios has endured into the digital age as a legendary yet working homage to high-quality sound, from Sinatra to the Beach Boys to Tim McGraw.

"It's not a historical monument to itself, it's a contemporary studio," said engineer Jim Scott, who recently recorded Dido with a 30-piece orchestra at Capitol.

But the large, three-room facility and its fabled subterranean echo chambers may soon be picking up some bad vibrations from an adjacent 16-story condominium-office project.

Sound engineers fear noise from the construction site, as well as from traffic that would eventually use the project's underground parking garage, will ruin the delicate aural qualities of the echo chambers.

A Los Angeles City Council committee recently denied an appeal by Capitol parent EMI Music North America and recommended approval of the project, contingent on additional measures – including construction walls and a foam barrier – to mitigate potential sound issues.

Capitol had worked out the measures with developer Second Street Ventures as a backup plan but still opposes the project.

David Jordon, co-owner of Second Street Ventures, said he felt confident that the measures would protect Capitol Studios' sound.

"We have no desire to create any negativity toward Capitol Records," he said. "Our design is to enhance and protect this iconic building and the area around it. From a personal standpoint, we wouldn't want that kind of liability."

The full council is set to give a final vote on the proposal Tuesday in a session that could attract the many music industry insiders who oppose the project.

"Those echo chambers at Capitol should not ever be lost. That sound cannot be reproduced," said engineer Geoff Emerick, who worked with the Beatles.

Among the famed musicians who have recorded there since the tower's 1956 opening include Dean Martin, Natalie Cole, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall and James Taylor. Green Day recorded most of its Grammy-winning 2004 album American Idiot there.

Buried more than 25 feet below the Capitol tower's parking lot, the studios' trapezoid-shaped echo chambers, built out of 10-inch thick concrete walls, were co-designed by famed sound innovator Les Paul, who pioneered the electric guitar and helped develop multitrack recording.

Greg Parkin, Capitol Studios and Mastering's senior director of operations, said the chambers have never been replicated digitally, and that's why artists still travel to Capitol from around the world.

The Associated Press