Luminary Hotel is a high end Autograph Collection hotel that recently opened in Fort Myers, along with a new culinary theater and multiple restaurants. The Workshop Culinary Theater is a spot where guests can watch food be prepared on the stage and taste what’s been cooked by the chef. Ella Mae’s Diner is a southern style restaurant attached to the hotel where guests and patrons can enjoy a sit-down meal.
Due to the reflective finishes in each space such as drywall and tile floors, the spaces were too reverberant and would each require acoustic treatment. In the Culinary Theater, our team installed wall mounted acoustics panels, and in the restaurant our team installed stretched acoustic fabric wall.
The Workshop Culinary Theater Acoustic Wall Panels
In the Culinary Theater, guests can watch the chef cook on stage and then get to taste the food while still in their seats. The space was large and finished with reflective drywall and polished concrete floors, so the client knew echo and reverb could be an issue before shows even started.
Commercial Acoustics was contracted to install a total of 18 sound absorbing panels within the culinary theater. Each panel was wall mounted and wrapped in Guilford of Maine acoustically transparent fabric. Many clients will choose a color to match the wall, but in this case they went with an accent color for the room.
With the acoustic wall panels installed, chefs and attendees of the show could talk without worrying about unwanted echo.
Ella Mae’s Diner Stretched Fabric Wall
Fabric wall is an aesthetic and functional product to help improve the acoustics in a space. In Ella Mae’s Diner, the client decided to opt for acoustic fabric wall as opposed to ceiling mounted panels due to the number of obstructions on the ceiling. Our team installed sections of stretched fabric wall in between the ceiling and the tops of the doors and windows in the dining room.
Installing fabric wall rather than panels near the top of the walls allowed our team to modify the fiberglass in the field to fit in the exact spaces between the windows and ceilings. Cutting acoustic wall panels to fit into an exact space can make it easier for any imperfections in panel cuts to be extremely noticeable. However, with fabric wall track our team was able to set the exact parameters for the fiberglass, and finally cover that with acoustically transparent fabric.
With the acoustic treatment installed in the hotel restaurant, the speech intelligibility of Ella Mae’s diner was greatly improved. This will allow guests and employees to more comfortably converse without needing to yell over anyone in order to be heard or understood.
When considering acoustic panels or fabric walls for your restaurant, be sure to use the Acoustic Calculator to determine how many square feet of acoustic treatment is needed. Contact Commercial Acoustics if design assistance is needed.
