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A revamp inside one of America’s most important cultural venues is ready to debut two years ahead of schedule (and reportedly on budget) after the project team behind Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall in Manhattan announced an October 8th public opening date on Tuesday. NYC's redesigned new... View full entry
After two years of renovations, a room once blighted by poor acoustics and outdated machinery can now accommodate musicians previously turned away, with a push of a button — The Guardian
Ahead of its 50th birthday next year, the famed Jørn Utzon-designed Sydney Opera House is set to present the newly renovated concert hall which sought to remedy significant acoustics and accessibility issues. Andrew Haveron, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster, seemed more than pleased... View full entry
The work of Concordia University Centre for Sensory Studies director David Howes and other researchers working in the growing field of sensory urbanism was recently highlighted by Jennifer Hattam of MIT Technology Review. A wide range of methods ranging from the high-tech and... View full entry
Future generations of concertgoers in the Orlando area will want a ticket to commemorate the moment the city’s dynamic new $612 million performance venue makes its theatrical debut at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts this Friday. Designed by former UCLA faculty member... View full entry
The maddening hum of safety slats on the pedestrian handrails of the Golden Gate Bridge will finally be silenced under a recently released proposal by the Bridge District.
The fix — devised and tested by bridge engineers in consultation with aerodynamic and acoustic experts — calls for attaching U-shaped clips containing a thin rubber sleeve to all 12,000 vertical slats on the railings.
— The San Francisco Chronicle
The haunting acoustic hum is the direct result of a $12 million wind retrofit project authored by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. A few enterprising locals have made the most of the deafening din, although the majority of drivers in the Bay Area were vocally against it... View full entry
A fascinating addition to the Chinese cultural program has come online this week with the completion of OPEN Architecture’s Chapel of Sound in Chengde, Hebei Province. Overlooking the ruins of one of China’s most important historic sites, the Ming Dynasty-era Great Wall, the concert hall... View full entry
A new study by researchers out of The Ohio State University investigates a different kind of design for absorbing vibrations that could better soundproof materials. Ryan Harne, senior author of the paper and former associate professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State, along with... View full entry
The Los Angeles Philharmonic and its Youth Orchestra Los Angeles recently tried out the nearly completed Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center. That is the dilapidated former bank building and Burger King in downtown Inglewood that architect Frank Gehry has transformed into a fabulous performance space and teaching facility for young musicians. — Los Angeles Times
Plans for a Gehry Partners-envisioned permanent home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Youth Orchestra first appeared on Archinect in 2017, followed by more concrete designs for the future Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center in LA's Inglewood neighborhood a year later. Previously on... View full entry
UNStudio and Delta Light have partnered to create Soliscape, a flexible system that allows for the personalization and customization of light and acoustic conditions in the workplace. "The way we work, live, and relax is changing," said Ben van Berkel, founder of UNStudio. "This new hybrid world... View full entry
A team of Boston University researchers recently stuck a loudspeaker into one end of a PVC pipe. They cranked it up loud. What did they hear? Nothing.
How was this possible? Did they block the other end of the pipe with noise canceling foams or a chunk of concrete? No, nothing of the sort. The pipe was actually left open save for a small, 3D-printed ring placed around the rim. That ring cut 94% of the sound blasting from the speaker, enough to make it inaudible to the human ear.
— Fast Company
"The mathematically designed, 3D-printed acoustic metamaterial is shaped in such a way that it sends incoming sounds back to where they came from," explain the Boston University researchers behind the discovery: Xin Zhang, a professor at the College of Engineering, and Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, a... View full entry
Entering into a new space means stepping into a new acoustic arena. Whether subconscious or at the forefront of our attention, the way sound resonates in a built environment is part of a crafted experience influencing how people relate to a space. The presence of a circle or semi circle in... View full entry
Watch professional tennis, and you'll notice that silence makes up a significant part of the game, to the point where spectators can hear the bounce of the ball each time it lands on the playing surface. The acoustics of the new Rossetti Architects-designed roof for the Arthur Ashe stadium, which... View full entry
To live in New York means to get habituated to the noise of everyday life here...As a neighborhood becomes more homogenous, and its residents sync their noise patterns, noise complaints tend to go down. This may explain why, controlling for other factors, gentrifying areas of the city display higher levels of noise complaints. City residents stop consciously recognizing noise as novel, and it becomes background, even if their bodies don’t always recognize it as such. — Nautilus
“We all love to hate the noise. And yet sitting in silence, I do not feel as if I’ve found an escape from pain: I have simply traded it for a new variety. Shockingly, I realize I want to trade back.”Writer Susie Neilson delves into the pros and cons of urban noise pollution, a truly defining... View full entry
Derek Sugden, the dean of acoustic engineers, who has died at the age of 91, remained perpetually surprised that architects could be so concerned with every aspect of the building they were designing ‘but not really with what it sounded like’. According to Sugden, ‘the sound is as important as the surface and the feel. It’s important because our ears define for me the nature of space.’ — London Review of Books
So not everyone can be Yasuhisa Toyota, but still: paying attention to the acoustics of a space should be a vital component of the architectural design process, yeah?Related:Master acoustician, Yasuhisa Toyota, talks about kickstarting his career with the Disney Concert HallDavid Byrne is Playing... View full entry
The primary strategy for blocking airborne sound is to add a layer of dense, flexible material to the problem surface...Stopping vibration-borne noise is usually trickier and more expensive. It requires suspending walls, ceilings or floors so that the vibrations aren’t conducted to a building’s framing, which can transmit sound throughout a building...A compounding issue is that it takes only a very small gap to let in a lot of sound. — NYT
Roy Furchgoff surveys the noise-control industry, which at least anecdotally in New York is growing. Related and recently, architecture critic Michael Kimmelman and producers Alicia DeSantis, Jon Huang and Graham Roberts documented the sounds of some archetypal NYC spaces. View full entry
