Groundborne noise and vibration control at the Toronto Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

Abstract

The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Canada’s first purpose-built opera house had its grand opening on June 14, 2006. Occupying an entire block of the financial and theatre district in downtown Toronto (across from the Sheraton Hotel), the facility with its 2,000 seat auditorium, is the new home of the Canadian Opera Company and the performance venue for the National Ballet of Canada. A major challenge for the project’s downtown location was isolating the auditorium from the vibration and noise from the adjacent subway system on University Avenue and surface streetcars on Queen Street. A ‘‘building within a building’’ vibration isolation design was developed that set the entire auditorium, stage, and rehearsal hall on rubber isolation bearings. This paper provides design details and the procedures used to ensure that the groundborne noise from outside activities would be inaudible. Results of follow-up measurements are presented which confirmed that the vibration design effectively mitigated the outside vibration and noise intrusion inside the auditorium to achieve background noise levels from exterior sources equivalent to the threshold of human hearing.