Bellevue, WA
McGranahan Architects
Bellevue School District
Creating Spaces Conducive to Learning and Expression
Spiritridge Elementary School is a new, 63,000 square foot, K-5 school with approximately 480 students and 32 staff members. The $23,500,000 building features a bright, central entrance with a library and an administrative area with a two story classroom wing on one side and gymnasium, music room and art room on the other. Excited students opened the doors of their new building in the fall of 2011.
Challenges:
The entrance, classrooms, gymnasium and music spaces required unique acoustical design to prevent harsh or unwanted reflections. The music room needed an acoustical treatment to reduce loudness and provide a diffuse field of sound, allowing the director to hear the group and each of the individual players. The multi-purpose gym, used for sports and assemblies, required an acoustical treatment to mitigate excessive noise and support speechmakers.
Solutions:
Sound management throughout the school was successfully achieved by thoughtful design and finish of room walls, floors and ceilings and carefully selected, noise mitigating walls, windows and doors. The special needs of the music room were addressed by angling the walls and the ceiling. In the gym, the desired sound quality was achieved by installing long lasting, customized, perforated metal waves secured to a curved ceiling grid.
History:
McGranahan Architects has over 50 award winning years of dedication to public and educational facilities. In our years of business, SSA has been invited to provide acoustical design recommendations on over twenty Washington State public K-12 schools to McGranahan. The metal waves used in the gymnasium were developed by a materials supplier in conjunction with SSA Acoustics.