Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Restaurants have a sound opportunity

We are often asked to help find ways to improve acoustics and reduce crowd noise in restaurants, but when it comes to implementing them the disruption can be hard for an operator to accommodate. Even simple changes to ceiling finishes can mean a day or more of lost dining room revenue, in a business already on thin margins typical for NYC and other expensive places.

During COVID, we noticed that the restaurants that were fortunate enough to be breaking even with delivery and outdoor dining found themselves with once-busy dining rooms that were largely going unused. It’s a perfect opportunity to make what might have otherwise been disruptive changes to an interior, in anticipation of packed crowds returning once again. Carefully analyzed and thoughtfully implemented, good restaurant acoustics can allow diners to converse in a lively environment, without subjecting them to either an ear-splitting racket or an overly-deadened hush.

Locking down vibration

A recent article in Science highlights the opportunity presented by the last several months of lockdown: an unprecedented lull in anthropogenic seismic noise (or, “people stopped shaking so much”). Seismologists and researchers have been able to study groundborne vibration and seismic activity that would otherwise have been lost in the noise, which has been reduced by as much as 50% with so many staying home. On the flip side, this correlation also motivates novel ways of tracking human mobility by monitoring this noise floor—simply putting one’s ear to the ground.

Sonic thump

NASA has awarded the contract to build its first piloted X-Plane in decades, with the mission to advance supersonic flight over populated areas. While the historic Concorde broke the sound barrier over the ocean, it was restricted to subsonic speeds over land due to the disruptive and objectionable sonic boom produced by supersonic flight. In the new Low Boom Flight Demonstrator design, the contours of the airframe and management of the flight profile will help to minimize and distribute the shocks over a wide area, producing a series of muffled thumps instead of the two sudden, loud cracks that occur when the leading and trailing sonic shocks coalesce in existing designs.

The research program is also advancing the analysis and prediction of supersonic noise propagation through the atmosphere, and how those of us on the ground perceive the new muffled signature—since public acceptance is the ultimate hurdle to commercialization.  New York to LA in two hours never sounded so good!

The Institute takes the floor

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate was dedicated this week at a ceremony attended by the President, Vice President, the Kennedy family, and former colleagues of the Senator, with coverage on Meet the Press and the New York Times. The Institute is adjacent to the JFK Library on the University of Massachusetts Boston campus and includes classrooms, exhibit space, and a full size replica of the United States Senate chamber. Working with Rafael Viñoly Architects, we helped the building architectural and mechanical designs achieve acoustic environments conducive to speech intelligibility, learning, productivity, and reflection.  The Institute opens to the public on March 31, 2015—see you there!

Pandora design awarded

Our office interior project for Pandora Media with ABAstudio continues to earn recognition from the architecture community, recently winning an Award of Merit from AIA New York State to add to its prior accolades.  We are glad to have been able to contribute to the project and grateful for the recognition!

AIA Award of Merit for Pandora Media

Pandora’s media

We recently completed a fun and “musical” office interior for Pandora Media in Midtown Manhattan in conjunction with ABA Studio.  The project was recently featured on both ArchDaily and Architizer, as their Project of the Day.  Congratulations to the project team and we wish Pandora Media sweet sounds in their new space!

Pandora Media NYC