Portfolio

St. Paul, MN

The Schoenecker Center at the University of St. Thomas heralds a new era in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) education, fostering a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach. This expansive 130,000 SF facility is designed to encourage interaction among students and faculty from different fields, integrating cutting-edge labs, flexible workspaces, and areas dedicated to the arts and engineering, all aimed at providing a holistic educational experience. Jaffe Holden’s scope included acoustic consulting for all the performance spaces, recording studios, podcast studios, and emerging media spaces.

With teaching, learning, recording, and performance activities occurring simultaneously throughout the building, isolation between sound sensitive spaces was a primary focus for the design. The performance hall, instrumental rehearsal room, and recording studio spaces were designed as “box-in-box” construction with either wood or concrete “floating” floors, CMU or multi-layer gypsum board wall constructions, and spring-isolated drywall ceilings. Sound rated windows at the corridors into the performance hall and instrumental rehearsal space bring a visual sense of connectivity to the building’s multi-disciplinary academic spaces while maintaining the sound isolation necessary to support simultaneous activities.

The performance hall includes adjustable acoustic drapes to optimize the room acoustics and provide flexibility for a variety of rehearsal and performance types that may occur. The performance hall, instrumental rehearsal space, and recording studio suite spaces include diffusive, absorptive, and reflective materials distributed over the walls and ceilings behind a sound transparent stretched fabric system for a uniform appearance.