AVWeek Interview
Fixing the Collaboration Wars, Google, Microsoft, Zoom. AVWeek 624: Host Brian Heidergerken Fixin' it yourself. What companies like Microsoft are doing to let AV professionals do to fix, repair, and update their own gear. [...]
Fixing the Collaboration Wars, Google, Microsoft, Zoom. AVWeek 624: Host Brian Heidergerken Fixin' it yourself. What companies like Microsoft are doing to let AV professionals do to fix, repair, and update their own gear. [...]
Kirkegaard is pleased to welcome Clay Benning as a Principal on the Integrated Systems Design team (KIS). Clay joins Kirkegaard from the Alliance Theatre where he has been the Resident Sound Designer for 23 years. He has designed over 150 [...]
High-performance glass walls keep the main broadcast studio quiet while preserving a view across Van Ness Avenue. A production studio and two interview rooms are well isolated from each other and treated to sound as similar as possible, so recordings…
The new TCU Pavilion offers a huge step forward in the concertgoing experience for performers and audiences alike. Kirkegaard worked with Axis Architecture and Theatre Projects Consultants from the earliest planning stages to work out a comprehensive approach to the…
The renovation retained the beautiful green lawn with space for 8,000, surrounded by a berm crowned with trees, but added tunnels for pedestrian access to the lawn and vehicular access to the stage. The bare performance platform became a new…
The world's first Forest Theatre-Nine Trees Future Art Center officially opened in September 2019. The art center is located in Fengxian District, Shanghai. It is the landmark project of Art Business Card of South Shanghai and also it's the first…
The Humanities Building at SUNY Purchase complements the school’s performing arts center by offering students who are not arts majors an opportunity to gain performance and production experience. Kliment Halsband Architects undertook a gut renovation of Venturi & Rauch’s 1973…
The 250-seat Watts Theatre is a thrust theater with a stagehouse and a single balcony, protected from the hubbub of this busy building by a structural concrete shell. Actors need no amplification in this intimate space, but a sophisticated audio…
The new Valley City State University (VCSU) Center for the Arts is the creative hub of the campus, a space for fostering creative expression and experiential hands-on learning – in music and the visual arts – for the students of…
High-performance glass walls keep the main broadcast studio quiet while preserving a view across Van Ness Avenue. A production studio and two interview rooms are well isolated from each other and treated to sound as similar as possible, so recordings…
The Bowes Center sits on Van Ness Avenue with a view to City Hall’s dome from the 11th floor Barbro Osher Recital Hall. With its inherent flexibility, this beautiful room can be an event space or accommodate audiences of up…
The MMR is a unique space, used for CIRMMT’s ground-breaking research in ensemble communication as well as rehearsals, performances and recordings. For this challenging range of uses, we created a neutral, highly flexible acoustic environment. The walls of the room…
The major acoustic challenge for the project was providing the right amount of sound isolation between all the dance studios to allow for simultaneous use without disruption.
The GRAY TV Studios in Augusta, Georgia is a 30,000 sf facility dedicated to the production of local news programs WRDW and WAGT. This fast-paced project includes two 2,400 sf live rooms that require clear sightlines to the large central…
Kirkegaard worked closely with Partners by Design who was responsible for the design of the exterior architecture while in collaboration with Hendrick, who was the interior architect. Located on a prominent site on the Beltline highway, this location presented challenging…
The Mount Baker Theatre is a city owned facility on the National Historic Registry of Historic places and is managed by a not for profit organization called Mount Baker Theatre (MBT). The Theatre was built in 1927 as a luxurious…
The Betty Anne Rouse Bell Recital Hall is a 366-seat performance space for Berry College and its School of Music. This renovation of the 1928 Ford Auditorium transformed a worn and acoustically problematic room both visually and functionally and made…
The Linde Center for Music and Learning was conceived as a complement to the huge Koussevitzky Music Shed and intimate Seiji Ozawa Concert Hall, which seats 1,100 patrons within the hall, plus 1,000 on the lawn beyond the operable rear…
To better serve their growing student body, the COCA underwent a major renovation and expansion. The Ferring East Wing expansion features a state of the art Berges Theatre with full fly loft and orchestra pit while also housing three new…
This transformative project finally gives DePaul's School of Music a facility that matches the quality of its faculty and students. The first phase is the Holtschneider Performance Center, a new 144,000 gsf music building with a unique 505-seat concert hall…
The Fritzsche Center is an addition with auditorium, toilets and lobby. A future phase may add rehearsal and practice spaces. The auditorium is designed for regular worship, assembly, and all kinds of performances: concert band, chorus, jazz band, solos, dance,…
Starting in 2012, Kirkegaard helped to undertake a thorough renovation, combining it with the building next door to create a versatile home for the Augusta Symphony. The venue now hosts a wide variety of performance, ranging from unamplified symphonic music,…
The venerable Oregon Bach Festival has long presented concerts of Bach, his contemporaries, and modern music that draws inspiration from early and baroque music. For years, OBF rehearsed and performed at various venues around Eugene, relying heavily on the University…
The Adams Center for the Musical Arts provides the teaching, practice, and rehearsal facilities that the Yale School of Music needed to carry their program into the future. The new building at the heart of the Adams Center links two…
For years Cincinnati Shakespeare presented wonderful productions and built a loyal audience in a tiny storefront theater. In 2017 they finally moved into a new theater that matches the quality of their work and presents it without compromise. Designed by…
The Santa Fe Opera has upgraded and expanded their facilities to improve the resources that support their unprecedented ability to produce excellent works and seamlessly make daily change overs to perform 5 different operatic works in the Crosby Theatre, 1…
Elisabeth Hall Antwerp brings a new world-class concert hall and conference space to life within the shell of an existing historically significant building. This new concert venue seats 1,900 in a flexible music, theatre and lecture space serving the KMDA…
The Brehm Pavilion addition to UM’s music building contains the state-of-the-art Brehm Technology Suite, an invaluable resource for all School of Music, Theatre & Dance students and for Performing Arts Technology majors in particular. The Tech Suite includes the Chip…
Chapin Hall’s concert hall is the largest gathering space at Williams College, used for graduation and baccalaureate services and as the principal performance space for the department of music and the Berkshire Symphony. This gorgeous building by Cram, Goodhue and…
The Jazz Market repurposed a shuttered market, creating a flexible 370-seat auditorium with a gracious lobby and an education/warm-up room within the shell of the old building. The client set clear priorities, demanding excellent natural acoustics in the auditorium while…
This renovation focused on transforming a 35,000 gsf Designated City Landmark into functional rehearsal, performance, support, and office spaces for the San Francisco Opera. Kirkegaard's design services encompass room acoustics, sound isolation design, and mechanical noise and vibration control consulting…
The Des Moines Civic Center is a unique multi-purpose performing arts hall with 2,800 seats on one strongly raked level. The inward-leaning curved pylons of the side walls, a characteristic gesture of the original acoustician, Paul Veneklasen, dominate the hall’s…
Weill Hall and Pavilion at Sonoma State University's Donald and Maureen Green Music Center has a 1,400-seat concert hall with a rear door that opens to the lawn outside providing excellent sound and spectacular views to an additional 3,000 people.…
Schroeder Hall is a 240-seat recital hall that is the jewel of the Academic Building and is the primary performance venue for the Music Department. Schroeder Hall, named after the piano playing friend in the comic strip Charlie Brown and…
Kirkegaard designed the acoustics of a 1,500-seat concert hall for the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, the oldest continuous orchestra in Mexico, comprised of 100 musicians from across the globe. This new home for the orchestra is located on the campus of…
Since the early ’90s, Indiana University (IU) has repeatedly called upon Kirkegaard to oversee the acoustics design of expanded facilities for the Jacobs School of Music, which prides itself as one of the largest and most prestigious music schools in…
Within this 1930 Tudor Revival, a comprehensive renovation provided office & instructional spaces for a variety of programs. Kirkegaard's primary focus was the conversion of a gymnasium into a 250-seat Recital Hall for the Department of Music. The insertion of…
The renovation of Hamer Hall provided improved acoustics for both musicians and audience, and cutting-edge staging systems and rigging capability. Key features include new sidewalls at the stage and audience chamber and a stage canopy that can be configured for…
Rubendall Recital Hall is a 250-seat room shoehorned into a Dickinson College 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,…
New York City Center has been central to the vitality of the performing arts of New York since its first renovation in 1943 when Mayor LaGuardia dedicated it as Manhattan's first performing arts center. Since then it has been providing…
The acoustic design challenges were a central concern when the project was designed. The wide range of uses required the design of acoustic curtains and banners to reduce reverberation and reflections and offer different acoustic Environments. At the same time,…
The Boston Conservatory of Music has a strong program combining music, dance, and musical theater taught out of several small urban buildings near the heart of Boston. Kirkegaard and the design team transformed their 1940 Hemenway building by inserting a…
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…
The acoustic renovation of the Tennessee Theatre was integrated into the historic fabric of the building so carefully that most observers would be unaware that any of the work was “acoustical.” The wide oval room was challenging because it produced…
Room acoustics, mechanical noise, and audio/video systems consulting services for the home of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, integrated into a downtown historic building. This 335-seat recital / concert hall integrates a large window into the upstage wall, enhancing the…
We were invited by the Danish architectural firm 3XN to participate in a design competition for the National Concert Hall. The project was extensive, involving a number of other performance venues as well as social, educational, and artist support spaces.…
Acoustics consulting services for improvement of symphonic acoustics, and the installation of a reverberation enhancement system for this 2,500-seat hall. The engagement included the design of a new orchestra shell for improved onstage communication and projection to the audience.
The Collin County Center for the Arts is an innovative public-private collaboration among the cities of Allen, Frisco, and Plano, Texas - three neighbors north of Dallas. The centrally located phased development aims to create a comprehensive arts and education…
Room acoustics, mechanical noise, and audio-video systems consulting services for this new 64,000 gsf facility. The building features a 270-seat lecture hall, library, computer center, meeting rooms, and presentation spaces. At the heart of the museum is an immersive multimedia…
Room acoustics, noise control, and audio-video systems upgrades were implemented in tandem with needed seismic modifications to the historic Salt Lake Tabernacle, originally built in 1875. The project included renovations of the famous Tabernacle itself and two additions: a new…