Kirkegaard Associates

Dickinson College – Rubendall Recital HallCompleted October 2011

bbellie — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:40:58 +0000

Rubendall Recital Hall is a 250-seat room shoehorned into Dickinson College’s century old structure. First renovated from a gymnasium building in 1981, the Weiss Center for the Arts’ latest transformation features a highly flexible interior, lightweight recital screen, fabric ceiling, and custom manufactured acoustic diffusion elements capturing the Dickinson campus. Along with Rhodes | Siegel Architects of San Diego, CA, Kirkegaard Associates carried out a comprehensive program of evaluation, planning, and execution of acoustic upgrades to the space. This beautifully transformed hall significantly upgraded the music department’s home, all the more remarkable given the project’s modest budget and fast-paced schedule.

Curtis Institute of Music – Lenfest HallAward Winner 2012!

bbellie — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:32:08 +0000

Lenfest Hall is a new multi-use music education and student residence building for the renowned Curtis Institute of Music. The expansion, on a historic block of Philadelphia’s Locust Street, provides Gould Rehearsal Hall for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra; 32 additional teaching studios, chamber music rehearsal rooms, and practice rooms; audio and video recording studios; an orchestra library; and residences for half the student body, all in close proximity to existing facilities on Rittenhouse Square. Amenities include dining and social spaces, including an outdoor roof terrace which is shared among students, faculty, and staff.

Coralville Center for the Performing Arts – Jim Fausett TheaterCompleted August 2011

bbellie — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:44:39 +0000

The Jim Fausett Theater is a 482-seat Auditorium with proscenium stage and orchestra pit designed for multipurpose use. Local arts groups will use the space for a variety of program types, including Broadway performances, jazz and chamber music concerts, dance, opera, and lectures. Other spaces in this project include typical control room, followspot booth, dressing rooms, lobby, etc. KA provided room acoustics and noise control design.

Boston Conservatory of Music – The Hemenway ProjectCompleted October 2010

bbellie — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:14:03 +0000

A four story addition to Boston Conservatory’s 1940’s Hemenway Building, along with a thorough renovation, has transformed the facility. The addition creates four large rehearsal spaces for dance, theater, and music, and a lobby for the 325 seat theater, while rationalizing circulation and making the entire facility accessible. The renovation improved the technical capacity, aesthetics, and acoustics of the theater, the school’s primary venue for musical theater, dance, and opera performances. Classrooms and shops in the old building were upgraded, and practice rooms were added over the existing building. The building how has quiet air conditioning and excellent isolation.

Virtua Health Voorhees Hospital

bbellie — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:11:09 +0000

The new Virtua Health Voorhees Hospital is a 368-bed, 680,000 sq. ft. regional medical center that provides specialized, high-level care in a family centered atmosphere. The building design was based around the 3 unique entrances to the hospital including main bed tower, women and children and obstetrics along with two emergency entrances, one for adult and one for pediatrics. The hospital which opened in May 2011 is 1 of 4 in the Virtua family. In addition Kirkegaard provided acoustic consulting for the MRIs and adjacent areas in the new Ambulatory Care Center located to the south of the hospital to open in 2012.

Kirkegaard Associates provided room acoustics and noise and vibration control services.

University of Southern California CSS – Orchestra Rehearsal RoomFirst phase completed September 2011

bbellie — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:43:47 +0000

The Thornton School of Music At University of California is halfway to a new Rehearsal Room.
In fall 2010, the School took over the 1982 Harold Lloyd Sound Stage, and for nine months the orchestra and wind ensemble have done their best to rehearse in a dead, black void while Kirkegaard Associates worked with Design Architect Dianna Wong and Architect of Record Lehrer Architects / Westlake Reed Leskosky to design an elegant, top-quality rehearsal room within the sound stage shell.

New walls and adjustable acoustic curtains were installed over the summer of 2011, and the musicians love the transformation.

Summer 2012 will see the installation of acoustic clouds, a sprung wood floor, quiet new air conditioning, and an audio video system, also designed by Kirkegaard Associates.

Jonathan Darling, Associate

bbellie — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:35:46 +0000

Mr. Darling had worked for eighteen years as a professor of Theatre prior to joining Kirkegaard Associates in 2002. Most recently he taught at Northwestern University where he was Sound Design Supervisor and Production Coordinator. He has been very active as a Theatre Sound Designer. Recent productions at Northwestern have included Titanic, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Cleansing and To Kill A Mockingbird. He also served for eight years as Sound Designer for Northwestern’s annual WAA-MU Show of original music theatre. Designs for professional companies have included The Student Prince, Kismet and Countess Maritza for Light Opera Works and six productions for Face To Face Productions, most recently The Wizard Of Menlo Park.

Mr. Darling has served as Sound Designer and/or Sound System Designer for many medium-sized theatres, including those at the Court Theatre; Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Goodman Theatre (asst. des.); College of St Benedict; Simpson College: and Northwestern University. Projects of this type as Sound System Consultant for Kirkegaard Associates include the Canton Performing Arts Center; East China Performing Arts Center; Monroe County Community College; and East Lansing High School.

Mr. Darling’s recent work for Kirkegaard Associates has ranged from sophisticated presentation systems to large multi-purpose auditoriums. Such projects include: Medical Conference Center at Northwestern Memorial Prentice Hospital; the renovation of the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Education Center; Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville, TN; Conmy Hall, Washington DC; Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne Music Building; and the Virginia Beach Performing Arts Center, Virginia Beach, VA

Queen Elisabeth Hall

bbellie — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:14:45 +0000

In January of 2010, the Joint Venture Team of Ian Simpson Architects, Kirkegaard Associates and Bureau Bouwtechniek was awarded the project in the international architectural competition for the redesign Queen Elizabeth Hall in Antwerp, Belgium. The new design will provide a world class concert hall and conference facility for the KMDA, the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, and the deFilharmonie, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra.

Our basic goal is to transform Queen Elisabeth Hall into one of the world’s most admired concert halls in terms of its acoustics, its architecture and its capabilities to accommodate a wide range of performance, theatrical productions and conference activities. Quality of acoustics for symphonic performances has been the strongest driving force for the project and a very strong design determinant in our team’s Competition Design.

The Brief calls for the new multi-purpose hall to accommodate the following formats:

Orchestral Format: approx. 1930 seats
Theatrical Format: approx. 1850 seats
Conference Format: approx. 2050 seats

In addition to the Queen Elisabeth Hall, there are important support spaces that have significant acoustic performance requirements. Among these spaces are Loos Hall, the large ensemble and individual rehearsal spaces as well as dressing rooms and backstage support spaces.

Firehouse Studios

mpenz — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:42:56 +0000

This new home for Plum Productions is situated in a turn-of-the-century Chicago firehouse. The architectural design was tailored to reflect historic detailing of the building, while simultaneously incorporating acoustical detailing to facilitate audio and video production. The main fire engine bays have been converted to a large filming area, while the bunk room has been converted to editing and production suites.

Olivet Nazarene University – Betty and Kenneth Hawkins Centennial Chapel

bbellie — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:02:59 +0000

The new Centennial Chapel is ONU’s central gathering space for the its student body, and regularly supports high-energy praise bands, orchestra, choir, amplified speech, and unamplified organ recital. At 3046-seats, the room unites the campus under one roof, providing a much-needed place for the entire community to gather. Audio/video systems allow comprehensive live broadcast/mixing of services, with a complete video mixing suite backstage. The building’s extensive technology infrastructure supports a wide range of programming to support the School’s needs.