Fuller Middle School

The City of Framingham needed to upgrade Fuller Middle School, an aging, brick facility that no longer met building codes or the school’s educational goals. Armed with support from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and results from a feasibility study authored by Jonathan Levi Architects, the City chose to fund a new facility that would serve students and residents better in the long term.

Jonathan Levi Architects hired Acentech to design audiovisual systems and acoustics for optimal performance throughout the building. Our acousticians provided recommendations for sound isolation to avoid potential noise conflicts within the building; room shaping for the auditorium, band and chorus rooms to ensure great acoustics; and options for room finishes to enhance the interior design and provide proper speech intelligibility and noise control for active areas like the gymnasium.

The auditorium features angled CMU walls and floating plywood panels that act as acoustic deflectors. Acentech also established appropriate background noise criteria for HVAC systems, both inside and outside the building, and guidelines for the equipment to meet all applicable regulations.

Our audiovisual consultants designed fully integrated AV systems for the auditorium, gymnasium, band/chorus rooms and classrooms. After a full AV review with the project team and school constituents, we provided design recommendations for large screen displays, speech reinforcement systems, ADA-compliant assistive technology, classroom presentation systems and digital signage.

The dynamic new school as been well-received by students, teachers, staff and community members, and lauded by several notable awards programs including the Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards and Global Architecture & Design.