Glulam Walls In Recital Hall

The Music Center at Indian Hill is going the extra mile to ensure that audiences enjoy the very best acoustics when they attend performances. The wall structure in the Recital Hall is marked by 'tuning fork' shaped glulam columns. We had to cut channels in each fork for timber decking.

Wood decking is (or should be) straight and flat. It was especially challenging for us to manufacture the columns and channels given that nothing in the building is straight or flat. To prove to the design team (and ourselves) that our manufacturing methods would work, we built a test wall before actual production began. 

This wall was shipped to the jobsite, where acoustics engineers checked that it would not cause sound quality to suffer. As we've been told, the decking makes up so much of the surface area that small changes could have a significant impact.

(It's hard to admit, because we're fascinated and impressed with the acoustics engineering work on this project, but we have no idea what goes into testing it. We imagine that this wall was subjected to sound at all frequencies by scientists wearing lab coats and carrying clip-boards.) 

Here's a shot of the 'tuning fork' glulam in our plant with a channel cut for the decking.

This is a close-up of the interior of the wall. Notice how the columns curve back and forth. The outside of the wall is a thick layer of concrete, which will prevent outdoor noise from disturbing the performances.