Creative Minds International

The school is located in the historic Sherman building, constructed in the 1850s on a section of the Armed Forces Retirement campus just north of the city center. CMI is highly regarded for its inclusivity and mission to embrace diverse backgrounds and learning styles with an arts- and project-based curricula.

Due to a growing student population, the school needed to expand into the unoccupied south wing of the Sherman building, and hired Newman Architects to lead the renovation effort.

After attending a walkthrough and meeting with the project team, Acentech’s acousticians knew that the high levels of reverberation would lead to noise build-up, and could be solved with creative acoustic finishes. Acentech recommended several wall and ceiling treatments to improve speech intelligibility in classrooms, reduce loudness in the high-volume activity spaces, and minimize sound transfer to sensitive spaces via the corridors and stairwells. The design team chose interior finishes that created a consistent and welcoming design throughout, while providing sufficient sound absorption.