Acoustic challenges of converting a historical hall to multipurpose use.

Abstract

The Great Hall of the historical Cunard Building in New York City was originally used for the Cunard passenger ship lines ticketing beginning in 1921 and later converted to a US Post Office branch. After years of vacancy, a hospitality company proposed to take advantage of the attractive Renaissance Revival inspired hall for events ranging from speeches to weddings and concerts. The Great Hall features a huge vaulted ceiling and is surrounded by occupied office spaces, with original windows between. The acoustic goals were to reduce sound transmission into offices and to tame the reverberation time to accommodate various programs. Several acoustic tests were performed to establish the reverberation time and the noise isolation class between the hall and offices. Further testing with windows covered overyielded the achievable noise isolation without modification of walls within office spaces. Only nonpermanent interior acoustic treatments were permitted as preserving the visual appeal of the interior is critical. Insulating glass additions on the interior of offices is expected to provide a noise isolation class above 50. The use of carpet and suspended drapery is expected to reduce the reverberation time to be more manageable for a variety of programs.