cultural venues

Cultural organizations such as dance studios, museums, galleries, and performance spaces are often in leased spaces adjacent to tenants such as retail stores and offices. Isolating noise emanating from and reaching the cultural space is one of many acoustical challenges. Achieving sufficiently low background sound levels from mechanical and plumbing systems is another key concern.

Typical Services

• Review design drawings for acoustic privacy between spaces.
• Review mechanical drawings for HVAC noise to meet often stringent design goals.
• Review and recommend acoustic finishes to achieve the desired reverberation time.
• Review special function areas for unique acoustical problems.
• On site measurements for troubleshooting, post-construction compliance testing, or to benchmark an existing space.

Exemplary Projects

Flashpoint Gallery

Flashpoint Gallery is a non-profit arts incubator space operated by CulturalDC that helps mid-career artists broaden their audience. The facility includes a theater lab, dance studio, and a gallery. Hush Acoustics assisted the interior designer Michele LeTourneur in addressing a variety of acoustical issues such as sound transmission between the gallery and theater lab, sound transmission out of the dance studio, and reverberation within the gallery.

Taubman Museum of Art

Interactive Design Group designed a new gallery for the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, VA. In gallery spaces, the main acoustical challenge is controlling reverberation in the space without resorting to sound-absorbing finish materials that draw attention away from the artwork. Controlling HVAC noise is also a concern, again to ensure that patrons are not distracted from the exhibit by the acoustics of the space. Hush Acoustics assisted the architect in both of these efforts.