Benjamin Markham
President
The 85,000 SF addition to Deerfield Academy’s Hess Center for the Arts was designed to support the demands of Deerfield’s growing arts and music departments.
Designed by ARC, with theatre consultant Martin Vinik, the addition houses a 175-seat concert hall, five art studios, an art gallery, and increased the seating in the main auditorium from 700 to 850 seats. Furthermore, the renovations provided additional space for a music recording studio, numerous music practice rooms, a second dance studio, and new infrastructure for a black box theater.
Acentech provided architectural acoustics, mechanical systems noise control, and audiovisual system design consulting for the addition and renovation, including the concert hall, black box theater, dance studio, entrance lobby, art gallery, several classrooms, music recording facilities, instrument rehearsal rooms, and art and architectural studio classrooms.
In addition to large video projection display systems compatible with today’s digital video standards, the audiovisual systems in the auditorium and the concert hall each include sound reinforcement systems that are tailored specifically for each space in order to optimize speech intelligibility and audio clarity. The audiovisual design also consisted of video displays and audio playback systems for each classroom, wired and wireless backstage communications, and video and audio monitoring of the black box theater’s performance area in the lobby and green room.
Through careful use and specification of sound-absorbing materials, noise control of mechanical systems, and constructions that achieve excellent sound isolation, the project meets strict LEED requirements for acoustical performance and other stringent acoustical design goals.
