Lionel Hampton School of Music
While managing the acoustics studio at Sparling, I helped the Spokane office of ALSC Architects design the Lionel Hampton School of Music renovation and addition at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Although the entire project was taken through design development, construction funds only allowed the for renovation of their recital hall, the Haddock Performance Hall.
This was one of my favorite projects because of the design process. I met with each of the faculty members to discover what they liked about their exiting spaces and what they would change if they could.
The faculty complained about dead spots on the stage of the recital hall, and the lack of room response. To address this, we added quadratic residue diffusers to the stage and rear wall and broke up the ceiling reflections with a series of spaced, curved reflectors.
“Michael, I wanted to take a minute and thank you for the tremendous job you did with the acoustics in the new Haddock Performance Hall here at the Lionel Hampton School of Music. I continue to get rave reviews about the sound of the room from even those that were skeptical about making any changes in the first place. Listeners are praising how warm and rich the sound is and how clearly they can hear from any seat in the house.…You attended numerous events before the renovation, met with our entire faculty for the purpose of exploring the stage from their viewpoint, spoke to us in musical terms, and patiently explained details to everyone about what you were doing. These actions far exceeded my expectations when I asked the design team to be cognizant of the faculty needs.”
– Kevin Woelfel, past Chair, Lionel Hampton School of Music, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.
