Timeline
Five decades at 2200 Bridgeway, in chronological order — from the shipyard office to the last surviving Record Plant.
- 1968
Record Plant New York opens
Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone launch the Record Plant model in Manhattan.
- Oct 1972
Record Plant Sausalito opens
Opening night at 2200 Bridgeway. The third Record Plant and the only one still standing.
- 1972
Santana arrives early
Carlos Santana — a Sausalito neighbor — begins a five-decade relationship with the rooms.
- 1976
Fleetwood Mac records Rumours
Stevie Nicks writes Dreams in Studio B on someone else's bed with a cassette deck running.
- 1977
Sly Stone moves in
Sly commissions a custom room — The Pit — and refuses to leave.
- 1980
Rick James writes Street Songs
Rick lives in the conference room and tracks the record that would define punk-funk.
- 1985
Club Fed
Federal raid; the studio is seized and run by the U.S. government — the only studio in American history to be federally operated.
- 1988
Arne Frager buys the building
The Frager era begins. Studio A gets an SSL 4000 G; Studio B gets a Neve 8068 with GML automation.
- 1993
The ceiling goes up
Studio A's ceiling is raised from 14 feet to 32 for Metallica's drum sessions on Load.
- 1996
Metallica records Load / ReLoad
Lars Ulrich and Bob Rock reshape Studio A around the drum sound they need.
- 1999
Santana — Supernatural
Tracking and overdubs in the rooms Santana has known since 1972.
- 2008–2020
The fallow years
The major-label studio business collapses. 2200 goes quiet — but the lights stay on.
- 2020
The revival begins
New stewardship, restored rooms, and working sessions again.
- 2026
2200 Studios today
The last surviving Record Plant — still tracking records, still open to artists.