Vashon Center for the Arts
The Vashon Center of the Arts, as can be seen in the photograph, is a jewel of a performing arts center for Vashon Island, near Seattle, Washington. Seating 300, it was designed by LMN Architects. I served as Principal in Charge of the acoustic design while at Sparling and then Stantec.
In the early design, we planned for overhead reflectors beneath the pitched roof, but analysis showed that the reflections from the roof itself provided the proper amount of energy at the desired times and directions. Reflectors above the stage and just proud of the proscenium provide a sense of ensemble for musicians and create early reflections to the audience to increase intimacy. Early designs had most of the proscenium wall acoustically porous to increase the room volume, but analysis indicated the room performed better with a solid proscenium, above the height of the reflectors on stage.
Concrete walls provide the mass to retain low frequency energy, and the “sticks on the wall” as the architects fondly referred to them, evoking images of trees, serve to break up high frequency reflections to soften that energy. The rear wall has curved reflectors to diffuse the energy, with pleated, adjustable, vertically deployed curtains on the rear wall to vary the room response.
