Robert Connick
Healthcare | Market Co-Leader
Principal
University Hall is the second new academic building in the UMass Boston Master Plan and houses a wide range of functions.
The 191,000 SF facility also hosts the art department, chemistry teaching and research laboratory space, and more than two dozen general purpose classrooms and lecture halls, including a 500-seat lecture hall. The building has a large atrium that serves as a circulation hub for the campus and weaves this interdisciplinary facility together.
Acentech provided acoustical and mechanical noise and vibration control consulting for the whole facility. We primarily focused on the performing arts spaces, lecture halls and classrooms. The combination of many acoustically diverse spaces within the same building, such as the chemistry laboratory with mechanical equipment near the noise sensitive recital hall, proved to be a challenge that Acentech helped to address. We collaborated closely with the architects at Wilson HGA, along with the theater consultant (Theatre Projects), to achieve excellent room acoustics, sound isolation and low noise levels.
As a key performing arts space on campus, Acentech developed a 3DListening® acoustic simulation to ensure various treatments and designs would be able to act as an ideal sound environment for different types of performances.
University Hall is located near a flight path for Logan Airport, and Acentech’s scope of service also included on-site noise monitoring. Acentech placed noise monitors on the roof of a nearby building to measure noise from fly-overs. That information was then used to advise the architect on a range of window types designed to isolate exterior noise appropriately.
Related Services
Related Markets
Related People
