Page 34 - College Planning & Management, January/February 2019

Case Histories REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS
TDirect-Attach Ceiling Panels Improve Acoustics
HE ACOUSTICS IN Temple ing the amount of hard surfaces, from an University’s School of Architec- open metal deck to drywall walls to concrete ture building in Philadelphia were floors, it was easy to see why sound bounced
exhibiting excessively high reverberation times, affecting students’ ability to hear and understand their instructors. Acousti- cal testing by Metropolitan Acoustics of Philadelphia confirmed that reverberation times were much longer than recom- mended.
Consultant Graham Everhart explains how his team created models based off the testing to develop solutions. “Our overall recommendation was to incorporate acous- tically absorptive materials on the available surfaces,” he states, “and in most spaces, the most available surface was the ceiling, so we focused on that.”
The consultants then worked with NELSON, the architectural firm responsible for the remedial retrofit project. “Consider-
TSolving Glare and Heat Gain
around so quickly,” notes Scott Winger, AIA, technical director for NELSON.
To reduce reverberation time and im- prove speech intelligibility, the design team chose Optima Capz ceiling panels from Armstrong Ceiling Solutions for the lecture halls and other presentation spaces. The panels were installed directly to the deck.
Tectum Direct-Attach acoustical
panels from Armstrong were chosen for
the classrooms and studios. “Tectum and Capz panels perform in a similar manner acoustically, but we went with the Tectum panels here because we thought they were a little more rugged and better suited for these types of spaces,” Winger states. These pan- els were also installed directly to the deck.
Acoustical testing following installation
Armstrong’s Tectum Direct-Attach acoustical panels cut down on excessive reverberation times in Temple Univer- sity’s School of Architecture.
of the ceiling panels validated the choice of treatments. Reverberation time dropped an average of 56 percent in the eight spaces that were tested, including a 79 percent drop in one of the classrooms and a 64 percent drop in one of the studios.
www.armstrongceilings.com
The Gordon Parks Arts Hall in the University of Chicago Lab School installed a custom motorized shade system on tracks with redirectional rollers.
different numbers of brackets.”
Biggers has returned since the initial
installation to make a few adjustments and said the Lab School is extremely happy withtheuniqueshadingsolution. CPM
www.draperinc.com
HE UNIVERSITY OF Chicago tions for customers around the globe. “SCS Lab School had a problem in its is about bringing solutions to solar shading new arts facility, the Gordon Parks problems,” Childress says. “There may
Arts Hall. “They had a beautiful façade design with unique angles and breaks in the glass,” says Clint Childress, LEED-AP, solar control solutions product manager at Draper, Inc. “But with this design, they had a problem finding any solar shading that would work.”
Bryan B. Biggers III, president of Beverly Venetian Blind Company, agreed it was a complex project. “It’s something we had never done before,” Biggers says, “but I felt that it would be a great opportunity to do something very special even though we really didn’t know how we were going to accomplish it.”
Biggers approached Draper’s Solar Control Solutions (SCS) division, which designs and manufactures custom solu-
be too much heat gain, a unique glazing design, an operation that is not standard, or anything that makes standard products not an ideal option.”
After some back-and-forth exchange of ideas and on-site meetings, a final design was agreed upon: a custom motorized shade system on tracks with redirectional rollers to help the shades follow the chang- es in slope. One of the biggest challenges for the Draper design and production teams was the different brackets required. “With the changing break-line in the curtain wall glass per shade, each shade was slightly different,” says Draper’s Direc- tor of Engineering Harold Seib. “Different length tracks (both left and right side for each shade), different length brackets, and
34 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019
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