Project Overview: Acoustical Scopes in High-Rise Office Building      

• Project: Acoustical Ceiling and Wall Panels
• Address: 1001 Water St, Tampa, FL 33602
• Facility Type: Class A Office Space
• Client: DPR
• Objective: Provide acoustic treatment for ideal reverb time, while also meeting the aesthetics of the space
• Scope: ACT, Stretched Fabric Wall, Acoustical Ceiling Baffles

1001 Water Street is a new high-rise building in Downtown Tampa, offering luxury office and retail space. Commercial Acoustics was contracted to furnish and install all acoustical scopes on the 12^th floor of the building. The design team was able to incorporate products that enhanced both the acoustics and aesthetics within the space. Throughout the open office and private conference rooms, the space required both acoustical ceiling and wall treatments, which are key components to achieve the speech intelligibility needed to work in an office setting.

Incorporating Acoustics Pre-Occupancy

• Challenge: Acoustic treatment in an office space with minimal mounting surfaces, that also meets office aesthetics
• Solution: Mostly ceiling mounted acoustical solutions, with additional wall treatment where available
• Constraint: Some ceiling obstructions such as exposed ducts and pendant lights in way of ceiling panels

Commercial Acoustics is often contacted to assess the acoustics in a space and provide solutions post-occupancy. This stems from employee complaints about their office space being too noisy to concentrate, or so quiet that every little noise is distracting. When an architect incorporates products such as ACT, ceiling baffles or stretched fabric wall into their design, the issue can be avoided all together.

Installing acoustical treatment pre-occupancy saves both time and money for employer and employee. It helps to avoid complaints before they occur, and any interruptions that would happen with installing acoustic wall and ceiling panels in an active office.

At 1001 Water Street, the layout and finishes of the space required acoustical enhancements in every area. The space was designed with floor-to-ceiling windows, glass dividers and exposed ceilings, providing little to no sound absorption without treatment. Due to the limited wall space, the design team selected high-end options including Lyra PB ceiling tiles, Turf Drop Baffles, Acoufelt ceiling panels and stretched fabric wall.

Acoustic Ceiling Tile In Open Office

• Product Types: USG Orion & Armstrong Lyra PB
• Finish: White
• Install Areas: Private Offices

Acoustic Ceiling tiles were installed throughout the private offices. Tile type included 2×4 USG Orion and 4×4 Armstrong Lyra PB glue up panels. Although from two different manufacturers, both are high-end, high-absorption options that fit in with the surrounding finishes.

Acoustical Ceiling Baffles: Drop Design

• Product Type: Turf Drop Ceiling Baffles
• Finish: White
• Install Area: Conference Room

Turf Drop Ceiling baffles offer a unique look along with functionality in the conference room. The flexible felt baffles fold over to appear like a raindrop, while also working to absorb sound in the space. Acoustical treatment is especially important in conference rooms to provide speech intelligibility for in-person and virtual meetings.

Full Coverage Felt Ceiling Panels

• Product: Acoufelt Capped Framework
• Finish: White
• Install Area: Conference Room

Similar to the ceiling baffles, the capped framework ceiling panels act as an aesthetically pleasing acoustical solution for the second conference room. Although felt does not have as high of an NRC as traditional fabric wrapped panels, increasing the coverage area helps to combat the lower noise reduction coefficient. Acoufelt framework panels can come “capped” or “uncapped” with additional felt coverage, and in this case “capped” panels were used to provide more square footage of material.

Stretched Fabric Wall in Conference Rooms

• Product: Stretched Fabric Wall
• Finish: Camira Acoustically Transparent Fabric
• Location: All 3 Conference Rooms

Along with the felt ceiling treatments, our team also installed stretched fabric wall on available conference room walls. 1” Thick tackable fiberglass is a typical substrate used in conference rooms, and other high-traffic areas to avoid dents in the wall panels. Although 2” fiberglass is more absorptive, in such a small area, the higher NRC isn’t always necessary.

Installation Sequencing

Acoustical finishes are typically the last product installed on new-construction/tenant improvement projects. The only item that goes in prior to these would be the ceiling grid for inspection purposes. It’s important that all dust generating trades, such as drywall, are complete before ceiling tile, panels, or fabric are installed. If the construction schedule does not allow us to meet these requirements, panels can be temporarily protected with plastic.

For 1001 Water Street, our teams installation sequence was as follows:

1. Ceiling Grid
2. Ceiling Tile
3. Stretches Fabric Wall
4. Felt Ceiling Baffles

Summary: Acoustical Scopes in High-Rise Office Building 

At 100 Water Street, we installed multiple acoustic products to help mitigate echo in an active, class-A office space. The products used included Felt Baffles & Ceiling Panels, ACT and stretched fabric wall, resulting in an acoustically balanced space, with products blending into the design.

If you’re designing a class-A office space, Commercial Acoustics has a multitude of product suggestions that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. If you’re interested, don’t hesitate to contact our team for support.