Classical Prep Academy – Acoustical Treatment in Gym, Dining Rooms and Library

Gymnasium Acoustic Treatment

Classical Prep Academy in North Tampa is a charter school focusing in traditional literature, specifically Greek and Roman literature and classics. The school submitted funding requests to the state in order to improve the acoustical performance in core learning spaces. Initially, the critical locations requiring immediate treatment were the gym and two dining halls (upper and lower schools).

See More: Gym Acoustic Treatment

In large spaces such as gymnasiums with ample wall space, our team will typically furnish and install monolithic, 4’x8′ acoustic wall panels. This product is the most efficient product to treat large spaces with nearly empty walls.

The gym was a large, enclosed space, with painted CMU on 3 sides and glass on the 4^th, the finished floor was hardwood basketball flooring, commonly referred to as Tarkett. The ceilings were over 30’ high and unfinished exposed metal joist system. The overall volume of the space was 150,000 cubic feet with no soft surfaces. Group classes an exercises were held in the space along with some small meetings, but the space proved inadequate due to the excessive reverb.

Commercial Acoustics visited the site and took field measurements for the gym size and reverb coming in at over 4 seconds. The school had sufficient wall space on all 4 walls to allow for large monolithic 4’x8’x2” acoustic wall panels , however they wished to keep the banner wall free from additional design features.

With much less wall space available in the dining room and music room, those spaces were mainly treated with direct-mount ceiling panels. And, since they’re much smaller spaces than the gym, this space was treated with smaller 2’x4′ and 4’x’4 acoustic panels.

Music & Dining Hall Acoustic Treatment

After implementation of the acoustic treatment the reverb dropped by nearly 70% and the school requested additional treatment in both dining rooms along with the conversion of the library into the music room. These spaces had much less available wall space, so smaller panels were utilized high along the walls, and a majority of the treatment was fastened to the sloped ceilings. In both the dining room and the music halls, reverb was problematic, but the buildup of acoustical energy in the space was equally frustrating. Over 120 4’x4’x2’” direct mounted acoustical ceiling panels were used across these spaces to significantly reduce the noise level and echo.