Tempe Visual & Performing Arts Center – Theater Acoustics
Tempe Center for the Arts
Tempe, Arizona
The strikingly magnificent TCA, designed by Tempe-based Architekton and award-winning Barton Myers Associates of Los Angeles, houses a state-of-the-art, 600-seat proscenium theater, a 200-seat studio theater, a 3,500 square-foot gallery, a flexible, multi-purpose events space, and large lobby, around which all of these main spaces are accessed.
The Lobby and Events Space have a floor to roof glazed facade, providing views over the infinity pool to Town Lake, and the Papago and Camelback Mountains. The site provided for the TCA was ideal however; it was directly under the flight path for the Phoenix Airport which was a major detraction.
As a result, project acoustical consultants had to address not only the typical issues of HVAC and electrical systems noise, room shaping and finishes, and acoustical separation between interior spaces, but they also had to assess aircraft noise levels and guide the design of the elements that isolate the facility from the loud exterior environment and result in sound levels inside which meet the expectations of a civic performing arts center of this caliber.
1 Work by Mr. Sevener (owner Soundscape Engineering LLC) while Senior Consultant at Ove Arup & Partners Ltd.