 In
the summer of 2000, Bainbridge Design of Portland, OR, contacted Michael
R. Yantis Associates, an acoustical consulting firm, with a rather
complex project. Wells Fargo Bank in Tacoma, WA was running into
problems with the sound in its main lobby. The high-rise building the
bank is located in is one of the more historic in Tacoma and serves the
dual function of housing the bank’s private and public businesses. These
private and public sectors of the bank are open to the same ceiling, but
they are separated by acoustical dividers. Unfortunately, the initial
design of the building and the passing of time conspired to undo the
effects of these dividers. Conversations were carrying from one area of
the bank to another.
Steve Gigobeur, an
acoustical consultant at Yantis, knew immediately that sound masking was
the best way to diffuse the bank’s difficulties. Unfortunately, the
design of the building was not very conducive to sound masking. Gigobeur
said that Wells Fargo wanted him to understand that maintaining the
existing look of the building was “absolutely critical to this design.”
Gigobeur continued, “This was a bit of a problem because the ceiling has
nearly 2,000 cubes that serve as lighting fixtures. The cubes are
arranged in a huge array evenly spaced apart” and are one of the lobby’s
most distinctive features. While these cubes
are aesthetically pleasing and provide excellent lighting, they formed a
major roadblock for Gigobeur. “The difficulty,” he said, “was putting in
a sound masking system on this ceiling. Usually, you put sound masking
through a drop ceiling. At the bank, the light fixtures block this area
off.”
Faced with the
conundrum of knowing that sound masking was the best solution for his
client’s problems and realizing that traditional means of installing
sound masking would not work, Gigobeur searched for a potential
solution. After a good deal of exploration, he found his answer.
 “The
solution,” Gigobeur said, “was the TOA
F-121CM loudspeakers. They had just about the perfect form to
fit between the lighting fixtures 18 feet above the floor. ”
Additionally, Gigobeur noted that TOA’s F-121CM loudspeakers provide
excellent frequency response and uniform sound distribution. In short,
because of their size and performance, these were the perfect speakers
for this sound masking project.
Gigobeur said that
the installation was also hindered a little by the building’s light
fixtures. “Access was a bit of a problem,” he said. But once the wiring
was installed, the only challenge left was maintaining the initial
appearance of the fixtures. This was done quite simply by painting the
speakers the same color as the lighting fixtures. “They did a very good
job,” Gigobeur said. “The loudspeakers actually recede visually into the
background.” |
