Month: November 2014

{Case Study} Utah Valley University Student Life and Wellness Center

Utah Valley University (UVU), a once small vocational school founded in 1941, has since expanded its mission and focus, growing into a sizeable and respectable university that fosters the education of more than 33,000 students each year. In addition to its focus on academics, UVU also recognizes the importance of recreation and athletics. In order to promote health and wellness on its campus, UVU created its Student Life and Wellness Center (SLWC). Among the SLWC’s expansive list of upgrades are three basketball courts, a climbing wall, fitness areas with cardio and free weights, a bowling alley, an indoor track, game and dance rooms, a massage room, and a reflection center. Construction of the SLWC began in September 2013, and its doors officially opened on April 17, 2014, offering its students, faculty, and staff access to a quality campus recreation facility. As stated in the SLWC’s mission statement, its goal is to “enrich the quality of life for students, faculty, and staff by providing a broad range of recreation, wellness, and student engagement opportunities that complement the academic experience.” “[The SLWC] is a state-of-the-art building,” said Kevin Hirschi, President of Mountain Heights Hardwood, the company involved with supplying the surfacing for this project. Hirschi notes that this building is truly innovative, standing at an impressive four stories tall. One of the main considerations of GSBS Architects and Jacobsen Construction, the two firms involved with SLWC’s construction, was how to reduce sound transmission from the noisy, upper-level athletic arenas to its quiet, (more…)

Sound Advice: Sound vs. Noise

It’s something that I did not understand after earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with a concentration in acoustics. Neither did I get it during my time working in the noise group at Boeing Commercial Airlines. Even in my first year as an architectural acoustic consultant, I didn’t really get it for a while, much to the chagrin of my boss. It’s the reason for the quotation marks around the word noise above. It’s not complex or difficult, but it is subtle. It’s the difference between “sound” and “noise.” I first took note of this distinction when my old boss would edit my reports.  Almost every time I wrote “noise” she would change it to “sound” and say, “Noise is subjective.”  Initially I thought she was just being nit-picky, but eventually I got it. Take the timeless example of a classical music-loving parent who doesn’t understand their teenager’s taste for loud rock music.  To some, it may be the most epic guitar solo of all time, and yet to others, simply noise. It isn’t always so easy to make the distinction between sound and noise.  In architectural acoustics, a high background sound level might be considered noisy in some cases, or it may have been intentionally designed that way in others. (more…)