Vertical campus planning impacts on sound isolation and room acoustics design in New Trier High School’s large music rehearsal spaces

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By 2015, New Trier High School’s student body of 4000 had outgrown its 117-year old campus. With no available land on which to construct new facilities, existing facilities were demolished to allow a vertical campus building to be nestled between the remaining structures. The LEED-Gold certified addition houses the campus' performing arts facilities, a library, cafeteria, applied arts/maker spaces, a culinary lab, interconnected visual arts studios, a technology support bar, STEM laboratories, and flexible classrooms. The performing arts spaces, including five large music rehearsal rooms, are continuously programmed throughout the school day and well into the evening hours, placing high performance requirements on the isolation systems employed in the compact, steel-framed building. The rehearsal rooms employ two distinct sound isolation techniques and room acoustic design approaches as a result of their location within the building and the pre-determined structural spans.By 2015, New Trier High School’s student body of 4000 had outgrown its 117-year old campus. With no available land on which to construct new facilities, existing facilities were demolished to allow a vertical campus building to be nestled between the remaining structures. The LEED-Gold certified addition houses the campus' performing arts facilities, a library, cafeteria, applied arts/maker spaces, a culinary lab, interconnected visual arts studios, a technology support bar, STEM laboratories, and flexible classrooms. The performing arts spaces, including five large music rehearsal rooms, are continuously programmed throughout the school day and well into the evening hours, placing high performance requirements on the isolation systems employed in the compact, steel-framed building. The rehearsal rooms employ two distinct sound isolation techniques and room acoustic design approaches as a result of their location within the building and the pre-determined structural spans.