In 1968, Jimi Hendrix and his manager Michael Jeffery bought a newly defunct nightclub, the Generation, in New York's Greenwich Village—a venue that Hendrix had frequented for jam sessions. The Generation had been known for live acts as diverse and legendary as Big Brother & the Holding Company, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Dave Van Ronk, Sly & the Family Stone, and John Fahey. Instead of renaming the club and continuing with the live venue business model (Hendrix's original vision for the project), advisors Eddie Kramer and Jim Marron convinced Hendrix to convert the space into a professional recording studio, as studio fees for the lengthy "Electric Ladyland" sessions were astronomical, and Hendrix was constantly in search of a recording environment that suited him. Architect and acoustician John Storyk designed each structural detail, and from there Electric Lady Studios were born. It was the only artist-owned recording studio in existence at the time.