A decade ago, the city of Modesto, California dreamed of building an arts center. Existing theaters—high school auditoriums, the Modesto Junior College auditorium, and the art deco State Theater—were inadequate to accommodate the variety of performance events the community wanted to host.

In 1997 Marie Gallo, married to the son of the winery co-founder Julio, convinced her powerful family to donate $10 million toward an endowment for a state-of-the-art venue that would be funded by a private/public partnership. While the city of Modesto declined to participate in direct funding for the project, Stanislaus County (population 500,000) agreed to contribute $15 million in land and money and became the owner of the building.

Project Partners: The Gallo Center
The Gallo Center for the Arts is owned by Stanislaus County, and operated by
the Gallo Center for the Arts, Dave Pier, Executive Director.

Architect: Nestor+Gaffney Architecture, LLP, Santa Ana Heights, Ca, www.ngarch.com)

Theater consultants and architect: John Sergio Fisher & Associates Inc., Tarzana, Ca (www.jsfarchs.com)

Audio systems design: Media Systems Design Group, Los Angeles, Ca (www.msd-group.com)

Sound system installation: Professional Communication Design (PCD), Santa Rosa, Ca, (www.pcdinc.com)

Acoustic design: JaffeHolden, Norwalk, Ct and Santa Monica, Ca (www.jhacoustics.com)

Sound isolation and mechanical noise control: Newson Brown Acoustics, LLC, Santa Monica, Ca (www.newsonacoustics.com)

Theater program consultant: Knudson & Ward, Inc., Seattle, Wa (www.knudsonward.com)

Funds from private donors with local presence accumulated—$5 million from the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation, $3 million from the Foster family, several donors contributing more than $500,000 including the (George) Lucas family, and funds from more than 3,400 individuals. At the same time, the project underwent a few setbacks and a number of budget-based re-designs, including a deferred art gallery and garden courtyard.

In the end, with a limited $55 million final budget, the Gallo Arts Center was able to realize its goals, especially with regard to architecture and acoustic quality of its two theater spaces: the 1250-seat Mary Stuart Rogers Theater and the 444-seat Foster Family Theater. Arts center chairman, Fred Silva, says the board decided early on not to skimp on quality and to try to build a world-class facility, recruiting top design professionals to make that happen.

JaffeHolden (Norwalk, Ct and Santa Monica, Ca), working with executive architect Steve Gaffney (Nestor+Gaffney Architecture, LLP), assisted with the design of the two theatrical spaces from the beginning to ensure optimal sound for both amplified and unamplified performances, and to make certain that the theaters were insulated from outside noise.

Acoustics for Two Performance Spaces
JaffeHolden provided room acoustics consultation for the design and construction for the 1250-seat Mary Stuart Rogers Theater and the 444-seat Foster Family Theater. Both halls host a wide variety of programs, both acoustic and amplified. The Rogers Theater is home to the Modesto Symphony orchestra, with opera and ballet performances—all without amplification. Broadway shows and pop concerts in the hall are amplified events. The Foster Theater hosts numerous family theater productions and other dramatic events emphasizing unamplified vocal clarity, with some performances requiring amplified sound.

For symphonic music and opera, the general acoustic requirements of a hall are a degree of reverberation where performers can balance an articulated style of playing with fullness and richness of tone. For the audience, this balance results in a sense of immediacy and involvement in the music. For amplified programs, the acoustics need to be fairly "dry," that is, with a relatively low reverberation time. A dry acoustic environment supports amplified voice projection, providing a high level of speech intelligibility, and amplified music.

JaffeHolden's solution to this challenge was first of all to provide sufficient volume in the hall to develop the degree of reverberation needed for classical music, approximately 2.0 seconds at mid-frequency, occupied. "The means to adjust the reverberant character of the hall," says JaffeHolden acoustician Mark Reber, "were provided in the form of retractable sound absorptive draperies. "For most classical music programs, the drapes will be fully retracted, allowing reverberation to develop," he says. "For theater and amplified programs, the drapes will be deployed in varying amounts, giving a range of flexibility down to a 'dry' condition suitable for speech alone, between 1.4 - 1.5 seconds at mid-frequency."

This ability to "tune" the room acoustics gives a great range of control and choice to theater directors, conductors, and performers. In late August, JaffeHolden Construction Project Manager, Robin Glosemeyer Petrone, and principal Christopher Jaffe, spent a day in the Rogers Theater recording sound levels in order to determine different configurations for draperies and acoustic panels in the hall for various types of performances.

Additionally, a demountable concert enclosure on stage can be deployed to create the proper room acoustics essential for natural music performances. "The concert enclosure provides sound reflections that enhance on-stage hearing for the musicians," says Reber, "as well as to project a balanced and properly timed series of early reflections to the audience."

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