by Russell Boniface
Associate Editor

How do you . . . improve the acoustical system at an historic landmark?

Summary: Acoustical design firm JaffeHolden, based in New York, N.Y., developed the new acoustical system at the Ford's Theatre National Historic Site in Washington, D.C. The new acoustical system focuses on better sound isolation and reinforcement for improved audibility throughout the 658-seat theater. Ford's Theatre and its museum have undergone an overall $50 million renovation. Both reopened last month.

Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. is the site of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. The 144-year-old theater has been redesigned for sound reinforcement and isolation within the theater and its museum below. There is also new digital visual technology. Both the acoustical and video upgrades were part of JaffeHolden’s sensitive approach to provide a state-of-the-art environment that matched the historic fabric of Ford’s Theatre, a two-balcony opera house.

Quiet please
The project was led by Mark Holden, chairman and director of design at JaffeHolden. Holden and his team worked with the Ford’s Theatre Society. “There was considerable difficulty with performances in terms of understanding the actors on stage,” Holden says. Holden and his team ran acoustic diagnostics and discovered that improvements were necessary to quiet the theater’s HVAC system and reduce outside street noise.

The HVAC system was so noisy it actually had to be turned off during productions. “The heating and air conditioning weren’t designed acoustically and was more typical of an office building,” Holden says. “They were noisy. We also found that the upper balcony had been converted into a technical loft with no seats. Subsequently, the lack of heating meant the upper volume of the room was more reverberant, leading to low performer-speech intelligibility. The sound echoed around. But there was no other location for these large air units but in the attic. We couldn’t put them on the roof for historic reasons. So we designed quiet units that would produce the needed heating and cooling, but with quiet fan noise. Then we built big enclosures around the units themselves and added tricks like silencers, mufflers, and duct runs.”

Holden says street noise, such as from emergency vehicles, could be heard inside because balcony windows face the street. “In Lincoln’s time you could hear the clop clop of a wagon going by,” Holden notes. “We were mindful that it is an historic building, and we couldn’t make modern improvements, so the existing windows needed to remain. We added acoustic storm windows, but on the inside, to buffer the sound from the street entering into the hall.”

As a result of the sound isolation and reinforcement, the audience can better hear the performance. “They no longer need to amplify and put microphones on every actor,” Holden points out. “The only microphones used are on child actors. It’s a huge cost saving.” In addition, Holden added sound isolation to the walls and ceilings of the renovated museum below so sound emanating from exhibits would not be heard in the theater above. The new digital technologies will eventually lead the way for multimedia educational displays in the museum designed to immerse visitors in 1860s Washington.

The theater’s reopening last month was timed to the bicentennial celebration of President Lincoln’s birth. The renovation of the theater and museum also included the lobby. It was the first renovation of Ford’s Theatre since 1968. This is the first phase of renovation that will also include a 10-story Center for Education and Leadership, construction of which will begin in 2010, and the Petersen House across the street, where Lincoln died.

Holden is happy with the results of Ford Theatre’s new acoustic environment. “It’s always best to have a natural acoustic room.”