Grand Rapids Art Museum | Project Profile | LEED Gold

The Grand Rapids Art Museum has the honor of being the world’s first LEED Certified art museum. Achieving the LEED Gold level of certification means it’s designed with state of the art energy efficiency and environmental awareness. Low water use, natural day-lighting, and optimized acoustics give the building longevity and sustainability.

Acoustics By Design provided acoustical engineering and audio-visual systems design for the galleries and the auditorium. We worked closely with Design Plus, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and wHY Architecture out of Los Angeles to seamlessly integrate the acoustical materials into the restrained minimalistic architecture.

The museum has a lot of concrete and reflective surfaces, so it was full of acoustical challenges. One of the solutions was a European product called BASWAphon, which looks like drywall, but is really a sound absorbing material.

Another challenge was the auditorium, which was designed to host everything from live music and film festivals to banquets and presentations. Our audio-visual designers developed a technical system that was flexible enough for the multiple uses, yet user-friendly enough for the museum staff to operate with ease.

As an independent acoustical consulting firm, our job is to represent the needs of the client throughout the entire project, ensuring that when everything is said and done, they end up with a fantastic sounding and looking space, and by all accounts, the Grand Rapids Art Museum is just that.

Read the full description and learn about the project team at ascribehq.com/acousticsbydesign/portfolio/109. © 2010, Acoustics By Design acousticsbydesign.com