Narrative Box 7
4 – Acoustic considerations are considerable
Anyone who’s lived in an old apartment building with wood floors understands the acoustic properties of wood. While it’s wonderful to use wood as a finish material, keep in mind that it is a hard surface — we’re all glad not to see acoustic ceiling tile, but wood does not take away sound. As such, we need to find ways to absorb and/or mask sound, through baffles and other strategies. For the C. Gerald Lucey Building, we used raised floors to run the majority of power and data required for the space, and then carpeted it. This build up effectively eliminates the concern of footfall noise from a space to the floor below.
