September 22, 2005

York Univeristy

The three-storey East Accolade is the second of two buildings constructed for an expansion program within York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Constructed as two buildings in one, the interior performance space won’t be disturbed from outside sounds.

Sound Building Design

Double shell key to quiet building

Every last design element prevents sound migration

W.D. LIGHTHALL

correspondent

Acting is a demanding and unique talent and for students learning the craft, it helps to have a unique building.

As the East Accolade building at York University nears completion, it appears from the outside to be of fairly standard design and construction. However, appearances are sometimes deceiving.

“In essence, it’s two buildings. One inside the other, for sound insulation,” said Phillip Silver, dean of the fine arts faculty at York University. “The idea is any sound generated in the outer building shouldn’t get transferred to the inner building, where the performance spaces are.”

The three-storey East Accolade is the second of two buildings constructed for an expansion program within York University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Already completed is the West Accolade building, containing mostly classrooms and lecture halls, which opened in September.

York University

The core building contains the main performance spaces, including a 325-seat proscenium theatre, a 325-seat recital hall and a 500-seat lecture hall. The outer building contains support facilities, classrooms, recording and dance studios and rehearsal spaces.

Unique to the East Accolade building, which opens for classes this January, is a two-inch gap extending from the basement slab right up to the steel roof deck and roof membrane.

This gap divides the whole into two sections, each with completely separate structural and mechanical systems.

The inner building is all structural steel while the outer building has a concrete and steel structural system.

The cladding wraps around both, so they appear as one. The gap between the buildings is filled with foam in some places and insulation in others.

Access ways between the two will all have double-door systems, to further prevent noise transfer between the structures.

The core building contains the main performance spaces, including a 325-seat proscenium theatre, a 325-seat recital hall and a 500-seat lecture hall. The outer building contains support facilities, classrooms, recording and dance studios and rehearsal spaces.

“The actor can be doing Hamlet in the theatre and you won’t hear anybody hammering in the machine shop,” Silver says.

Jointly designed by Zeidler Partnership and Bregman Hamann Architects, the two Accolade buildings total 358,000 square feet.

The new space is required to accommodate York’s expanding fine arts faculty, which has grown to about 3,000 students from 2,200 a decade ago.

Silver said demand has been driven by both the double cohort (the elimination of Grade 13) and Ontario’s general population growth.

PCL Constructors Canada Inc. is consortium leader and general contractor of the design build project, valued at $107.5 million.

With building East Accolade, “The big challenge is the acoustic separation and the acoustic requirements,” says Adam Marciniak, project manager for PCL Constructors. “And the challenge is making sure the subtrades understand what they’re building.”

Interior sound retention and abatement systems include multiple layers of drywall, reflective interior wall panels in larger performance and rehearsal spaces and an oversized duct system, which Silver said is quieter because it handles air through volume rather than speed.

Many of the smaller music and dance studios in East Accolade are being built with a double-wall system, consisting of two insulated wall studs built side-by-side. Two layers of drywall are then applied to each side of the double-wall dividing the rooms.

“And all this is sitting on neoprene pads, so sound doesn’t transfer down through the floor,” Silver said.

York’s fundraising campaign for the Accolade project has raised approximately $5 million of a targeted $10 million. For more information on the fundraising campaign, visit www.yorku.ca/accolade.

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