A little over a year ago, the Sazerac Company broke ground on construction for the Sazerac House – a new cocktail and liquor museum located at 500 Canal St in the heart of downtown New Orleans.

Known to New Orleans natives as the inventor of the city’s flagship cocktail, the Sazerac Company has been in business since 1850 and is one of the largest liquor brands in the United States, distilling well-known favorites such as Southern Comfort and Buffalo Trace among others.

The project is on trend with modern construction in that it will be a mixed occupancy building.  Retail and museum space for visitors comprise the first three stories, with the top two floors reserved as office space for Sazerac Company employees. Like many retrofits and remodels, noise concerns appeared early on. In order to minimize sound transfer (and reduce overall project cost), the design team utilized the Wall Blokker soundproofing membrane to achieve their STC requirements.

Soundproofing Membrane for the Museum

The architect in New Orleans knew they needed a solution to prevent noise produced by bustling museum guests from transmitting to the quiet office space above.  After considering a couple different solutions, it was settled that Wall Blokker would be used as the preferred flooring underlayment.  The architect was able to achieve his target STC rating requirement of sound traveling upwards through the floor and into the office space.  Note: This is a unique application in that most conditions call for an underlayment that prevents footfall sound from traveling downwards into space, whereas this was the opposite.

Due to the tight space limitations of the downtown New Orleans job site, Commercial Acoustics partnered with a building materials distributor for easy delivery and storage until the Contractor was ready to install.