Woodward’s Redevelopment / SFU School for the Contemporary Arts

Project Profile: Architectural Acoustics / Floating Floors

SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts is housed in Vancouver’s iconic Woodward’s complex.  This distinctive venue consists of studios, a concert hall, and theatre space.  The acoustically driven design of this facility included 8 separate floating floor systems, including one in an upper floor emergency generator room where the noise transfer was mitigated to the offices and theatres below with a 4″ isolated floor slab as well as with air springs to achieve the greatest amount of vibration isolation possible.  The generator was fitted with post-disaster rated seismic snubbers to ensure that the generator was not only intact but also functional after a severe seismic event.

Woodwards Theatre

Project Details

Location: Vancouver

Project: The project includes 8 floating floors

Challenge: Contain noise from a large generator on an upper floor and isolate seven theatres

Solution: Build a room with a 4″ concrete jack up floor on neoprene mounts and isolate the generator on air springs

Result: The generator can run through its regular startup procedure without noise transferring to the offices or theatres

Learn more about Floating Floors

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