Kirkegaard strengthens the human connection through sound and visual design.
We believe collaboration, care, and a variation of viewpoints result in an inclusive environment enjoyed by all. For that matter, we do not believe in labels and welcome staff of many talents that bring the synergy needed to our projects. Our staff brings a well-versed background in architecture, engineering, physics, theater arts, technical design, audio production, information technology, application development, interactive media, marketing, and finance. We are diverse in a multitude of ways, by skills, geographic location, and ethnicity.
Together, we are more than your average team, we are innovative, creative, and strategists moving into the next chapter.
Since its inception in 1976, Kirkegaard continues to evolve. R. Lawrence “Larry” Kirkegaard was a pioneering figure in the field of architectural acoustics and helped redefine the relationship between music and architecture. Today, we strive to explore and create new experiences at the intersection of sound, video, and architecture. We have expanded and strengthened our practice to provide integrated systems design services that are current with the latest trends. Our team and teamwork are integral to this future-thinking direction for Kirkegaard. We have taken the focus from one voice to a leadership team supporting and showcasing the entirety of our talented staff.
We have embraced the hybrid work culture and work from where we want to live. We currently have staff living and working from Ann Arbor, Chicago, Houston, Washington, Atlanta, Salt Spring Island, and St. Louis. This has broadened our prospective staff and helped to further exemplify diverse perspectives. Furthermore, this also allows us to engage with the local arts communities and learn what their needs and desires are firsthand.
At our core, we aspire for excellence in the arts, higher education, civic, and commercial projects we serve. We can use our judgment to navigate the complex functional relationships and program requirements of complicated building types, striving to make each project better than the last. We’ve had the great fortune to work with so many amazing owners, facility operator sites, artists, architects, engineers, theater consultants, contractors, and estimators. We wouldn’t have all the successful projects to show without their dedication and collaboration. As we approach 50 years in operation, we consider the legacy of the firm and combine that with who we are today and to chart where we want to be in the future. We hope you will partner with us in the years to come.
The opening of Jaharis Recital Hall has had an enormous impact… The possibilities for performance and rehearsal are endless – different configurations of the space allow for very different acoustic and visual outcomes. The flexibility of the acoustic allows us to feel as if we are in a different room from one event to the next. Finally, the beauty of the design and the incorporation of the natural landscape combine to create a sacred space for musical arts.
Nathan A. Zullinger, D.M.A. Assistant Professor and Director of the Choral and Vocal Program Department of Music Haverford College
Kirkegaard has grown over it’s five decades. Throughout those years we have approached design ahead of the times. The timeline below displays a selection of our successful work and milestones over the years.
FIFTH DECADE
Kaitlyn Hunt joins Kirkegaard
Senior Consultant – Acoustics
Tanglewood Music Center – Linde Center
This trio of rooms for rehearsal, presentation, and performance allow Tanglewood to present intimate performances in beautiful spaces that nod to the historic Tanglewood ethos while looking to the future.
Justin Yau joins Kirkegaard
Specialist – Acoustics
Kirkegaard Brand Evolves
Updating our name and branding, preparing for the future.
University of North Texas College of Music Recital and MEIT
We helped map out a comprehensive plan for the UNT College of Music’s many buildings. First steps have included the transformation of the choral rehearsal room, the 140-seat recital hall, and the technology-packed Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater.
Jeff Human joins Kirkegaard
Senior Designer – Integrated Systems
Michigan State University College of Music – Billman Music Pavilion
This handsome addition is the culmination of two decades’ work with MSU’s College of Music. It fills in what they lacked, and repurposes old facilities to serve them effectively.
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
New student housing on busy Van Ness Avenue also supports jazz and commercial music programs. Two recital spaces with glass on three walls, sound as beautiful as they look.
Michelle Huey joins Kirkegaard
Consultant
Ashley Jenkins joins Kirkegaard
Director of Marketing
Jon Everett joins Kirkegaard
Junior Designer – Integrated Systems
FOURTH DECADE
Brian Corry joins Kirkegaard Associates
Partner – Acoustics
Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer
RPI wanted a unique building to foster experimentation in the arts. Custom diffusive panels and the concert hall’s Nomex canvas ceiling are critical to meeting those goals.
Shalin Liu Performing Arts Center for Rockport Music
A beautiful marriage of architecture and acoustics an engaging recital hall with a view to the Atlantic Ocean.
University of Chicago The Logan Center
The Logan Center deliberately interweaves its spaces for music, theater, film and dance, plus maker spaces and versatile classrooms, so students can encounter something new every time they visit the building.
Brenda Walker joins Kirkegaard Associates
Collaborating Partner – Integrated Systems
Northwestern University Ryan Center
Three beautiful performance spaces as anchors – a choral/recital hall, an opera black box theater, and a stunning recital hall – plus dozens of gracious teaching studios, classrooms and practice rooms.
University of Iowa – Hancher Auditorium
A multi-purpose hall embracing the full range of performances from symphony to comedians with every use sounding like what the room was built for.
THIRD DECADE
Dewan Filharmonik Petronas
This elegant concert hall – the first in Malaysia – conceals a concrete ceiling that can raise or lower 25’, transforming its acoustics.
Polyana Frangetto joins Kirkegaard Associates
Senior Consultant – Acoustics
Anthony Shou joins Kirkegaard Associates
Collaborating Partner – Acoustics
London Symphony Orchestra St Luke’s
A pioneering example of a flat-floor space used for rehearsal, education, performance and recording, successfully inserted in the derelict shell of a 17th century church.
Overture Center for the Arts – Overture Hall
This project has everything – new and renovated theaters, rehearsal and reception rooms, art galleries – even a pipe organ integrated into a 50’-tall movable orchestra shell.
Music Center at Strathmore – Rockville MD
The Baltimore Symphony’s second home has retractable orchestra risers, a computer-controlled canopy, stage lifts, and pivoting stage walls so it can present dance and popular music as well.
Holland Performing Arts Center – Omaha NE
Cast plaster tiles subtly mellow the high frequency sound, and felt banners adjust the reflections to serve the full range of modern performances.
SECOND DECADE
Joseph Myers joins Kirkegaard Associates
Partner – Acoustics
Rice University-Shepherd School of Music
This ambitious building new facility for a great school includes a beloved concert hall and a spectacular organ recital hall, all achieved within a remarkably tight budget.
North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center
Creating a hall that’s great for symphony, opera, touring Broadway, AND popular music is a wonderful challenge, especially on a tight urban site.
Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall
We were hired to fix this room just six years after it opened – and we did! Measurements taken on the SFO’s tour through the great halls of Europe were an invaluable guide for our changes to the room.
Community of Christ Temple
What do you do when an architect dreams up a worship space inspired by a chambered nautilus, and the client loves the idea? You run with it and make it work!
Tanglewood Music Center – Seiji Ozawa Hall
A classic ‘shoebox’ form with an innovative rear wall that opens to lawn seating; a sound system transfers the hall’s sound to audience on the lawn.
FIRST DECADE
Kirkegaard and Associates is founded in Chicago
R. Lawrence Kirkegaard and Associates offering services in Architectural Acoustics. This is who we are today.
Pick Staiger Concert Hall – Northwestern University
More than 40 years later this remains the well-loved home for the Bienen School of Music’s largest ensembles and a host of other performances.
Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex – Denver Center
This varied collection of theaters have developed and changed over the years, building on a solid acoustic foundation.
Simon Estes Music Hall – Iowa State University
The first of Kirkegaard’s music buildings, setting a path in which we have flourished.
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts – Ordway Music Theater
This love letter to the glamor of European opera houses helped set a new paradigm for performance spaces that has lasted for decades.
Portland Center for the Performing Arts
Beautiful new theaters in different sizes and types, coupled with the renovation of a movie palace offers something for everyone.
The only way to make a multi-disciplinary art center work was to pay careful attention to the acoustics properties of each space – both ensuring that multiple spaces could be used simultaneously while recognizing the challenges of creating flexible spaces that would house performances with different acoustical needs. Kirkegaard has been exceptional at meeting each of these challenges. …has done a wonderful job of working closely with key clients, architects and the project construction team to create spaces with wonderful acoustics.
William J. Michel – Executive Director – Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
