Good Sound for Goodwill
When the offices at Goodwill Industries of Central Virginia were renovated recently, the nonprofit ended up with attractive conference rooms that didn't quite meet their acoustical needs.
Echoes and sound transfer quickly made it obvious that the rooms needed some serious noise control. If activities and meetings were ever going to be effective and comfortable, Goodwill needed to invest in acoustic sound panels.
Application Introduction
Renovations can simultaneously solve and create problems within a space, and many times the problems created are acoustical.
"Acoustics are just something people overlook and don't think about when they're changing the sizes and shapes of rooms," said Kathy Palimore, a technical sales representative at Acoustical Solutions.
This was exactly the case at Goodwill's central Virginia headquarters in Richmond when the education, training and job placement nonprofit decided to convert some of its office space to conference rooms.
"We didn't pay attention to the fact that there was going to be a lot of bare walls," explained John Bowler, Director of Real Estate Management at Goodwill. "We ended up with a lot of echo and noise transfer."
Treatment Provided
To address Goodwill's post-renovation echo problems, Acoustical Solutions installed AlphaSorbTM Fabric Wrapped Wall Panels in the new conference rooms. The varying sizes and styles of the rooms required a mixture of customized colors and sizes, which Acoustical Solutions created and installed.
Goodwill's sound transfer problem was a bit trickier than their echo problem. A partition had been erected to make three rooms from one (a copy/printing room, a small meeting room and a large conference room). The partition only reached three-fourths of the way to the ceiling because a gap was needed for the air conditioning system to work properly.
The problem was that each room's sound, especially that of the copy/printing room, was far too distracting in the adjoining spaces.
The solution was to make up the space between the partition and the ceiling with double-sided AlphaSorbTM Fabric Wrapped Wall Panels. A small space was left between each panel to allow for airflow.
Results
The Goodwill project was a success. Noise from the copy/printing room has been reduced from an annoying hindrance to low background noise, and the wall panels have drastically reduced flutter echoes in the conference rooms.
John said he heard a tremendous improvement in both applications of Acoustical Solutions' products.
For more information on this application, contact Kathy Palimore.
