Case study of the renovation of Sacramento City Community College auditorium, two theaters and twenty-nine classrooms

Abstract

A renovation was undertaken of the main auditorium, a small theater, a black box theater and twenty-nine classrooms to bring them into the digital age. These facilities had been designed in the late 1960s with only minor changes to update, for example, the black box theater. The project involved the architectural and mechanical acoustical design of these spaces and the design of the audio-video system for the performance areas and for the classrooms. The focus of this paper is on the renovation of the auditorium. A major change was removing the balcony seating, reducing the seating from 1100 to 600. The space was to be used for programs ranging from plays to rock music to symphonies. This meant that the reverberation time had be variable from less than 1-s to over 2-s. Panels were designed to swing on the side walls into two positions to achieve the variable reverberation times. The sound system for the auditorium, specifically the mixing board, had to be designed around that used for classroom instruction. Financial problems created large problems as did a decision to remove the specifications for vibration isolation of the HVAC system. A summary of results will be presented.