A quantity of solution sufficient to dissolve a pH controlling substance and/or substantially dissolve a surfactant without substantial excess solution is controlled under a set of time and temperature conditions to transform an inorganic material having long-range crystallinity to a mesostructure having long-range crystallinity. The method employs concentrated conditions that have a consistency similar to a thick slurry. The economic viability of scaling up such thick slurry methods is improved relative to prior more dilute methods of transforming an inorganic material to a mesostructure.