16 AV SYSTEMS DESIGN SPRING 2011 CASE STUDY Design Mecca Overcomes AV Hurdles A complete renovation of an historic building leads to unique meeting space at AIA’s Kansas City offices. By Gerard Grivois T he American Institute of Architects, headquartered in Washington, DC, was founded in 1857, and today has nearly 300 state and local chapters in the U.S. and around the world. e AIA strives to meet the needs and interests of the nation’s architects and the public they serve by developing public awareness of the value of architecture and the importance of good design. To accomplish their goals, some AIA branch offices provide meeting space and facilities that can be used by members and others in their local design communities. e AIA Kansas chapter, chartered in 1921, offered more than 50 programs to its membership in 2009. While these programs and services are key to their mission, AIA management felt these efforts were constrained by limited space at the chapter’s former West 9th Street offices, which had been its home for the past 20 years. When the chapter moved its offices last year, it chose an historic, renovated 1907 structure in the Crossroads District, a former downtown industrial area. ALISTAIR TUTTON PHOTOGRAPHY AIA’s beautiful new meeting space in a renovated historic building provides flexibility for a wide variety of functions, but designing an equally flexible AV system required some creative thinking too. Shown with motorized room dividing curtains. (right)
Transcript
16 AV SYSTEMS DESIGN Spring 2011CASE STUDy
Design Mecca Overcomes AV HurdlesA complete renovation of an historic building leads to unique meeting space at AIA’s Kansas City offices.By Gerard Grivois
T he American Institute of
Architects, headquartered in
Washington, DC, was founded in
1857, and today has nearly 300 state and
local chapters in the U.S. and around the
world. The AIA strives to meet the needs
and interests of the nation’s architects and
the public they serve by developing public
awareness of the value of architecture
and the importance of good design. To
accomplish their goals, some AIA branch
offices provide meeting space and facilities
that can be used by members and others
in their local design communities.
The AIA Kansas chapter, chartered
in 1921, offered more than 50 programs
to its membership in 2009. While these
programs and services are key to their
mission, AIA management felt these efforts
were constrained by limited space at the
chapter’s former West 9th Street offices,
which had been its home for the past
20 years.
When the chapter moved its offices
last year, it chose an historic, renovated
1907 structure in the Crossroads District,
a former downtown industrial area.
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AIA’s beautiful new meeting space in a renovated historic building provides flexibility for a wide variety of functions, but designing
an equally flexible AV system required some creative thinking too. Shown with motorized room dividing curtains. (right)
www.avsystemsdesign.com 17CASE STUDy
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Helix Architecture and Design of
Kansas City created striking interiors for
the 4,634 square foot space, and St. Louis,
MO-based Conference Technologies, Inc. –
CTI – contributed an innovative AV system
design that addressed the space’s inherent
AV challenges.
System Design RequirementsThe centerpiece of the new space is a 2,000
square foot first-floor meeting room, with
windows on two sides looking out on the
neighborhood. The room accommodates
60 people classroom style, 150 theater-style,
and even more for receptions. A typical
lunchtime education session attracts about
70 architects, so the chapter has space
to expand.
“We conceived this space as a ‘Think
Tank’ for collaboration between various
design professionals,” says Jeffrey Schutzler,
project leader at Helix Architecture. “The
intent was to provide a multi-purpose
room capable of hosting a wide range
of events, from board meetings, lectures,
lunch presentations, special events, and
design charrettes. The red flooring,
projection wall, and ceiling reach outward
to pull not only architects and designers
into the office, but also the public.”
AV ChallengesTypical of historic buildings built in the
early 1900s, the loft-style interior of the
space was not exactly designed for AV
technology. Exposed brick, concrete slab
floors, and 16-foot high ceilings with full
height windows created an environment
with many challenges for both acoustics
and visibility of projected images.
According to CTI sales consultant
Steve Martin, one of the main challenges
in designing an AV system for this room
was its use as a rental space. “Most of
the people who do presentations here
will use the AV system infrequently or
only once. So the controls had to be
extremely intuitive.” That was one of
the reasons Martin recommended using
Extron’s TLP 700MV TouchLink 7-inch wall
mount touchpanel.
“It’s really simple to use,” Martin says.
“Extron includes a seven-inch touchscreen
in the panel plus ten backlit buttons and
even a master volume control knob to put
everything at a user’s fingertips. They also
have a simplified configuration scheme,
making it affordable for customers who
might not otherwise be able to budget
for a touchpanel and its associated
programming expenses.”
The TLP 700MV is linked to an Extron
IPL 250 IP Link Ethernet control processor,
which enables monitoring and control of
all devices in the system, including all
sources and a unique mechanical curtain
and window shade system. The TLP 700MV
touchpanel is wall mounted next to a
6 by 9-foot Da-Lite projection screen at
the front of the room, directly behind a
movable lectern.
“I think this is my favorite part of the
room,” says Tiffany Shepherd, deputy
director of the AIA Kansas chapter. “It
makes it really easy not only for us to use
the AV system, but also for us to show
other people how to use it.”
Another challenge was the sheer variety
of meetings that would be held in the
new room.
Schutzler included lightweight,
motorized room dividing curtains from
MechoShade Systems to reconfigure the
room for different types and sizes of
meetings. “This is a big space,” notes AIA’s
Shepherd, “but if we’re having a small
meeting, we can drop one of these mesh
curtains to make the meeting feel a little
more intimate.” Schutzler put one curtain
about 15 feet from the front of the room,
and another about 18 feet beyond the first
one. Touching a button on the TLP 700MV
touchpanel activates a motor so that a
presenter can easily resize the space to
the size of the audience.
Since the first floor meeting space is
bordered on two sides by floor to ceiling
windows, daylight became an obvious
issue for the visibility of projected images.
Room darkening MechoShades were
installed in each window to address this
problem. Another touch on the TLP 700MV
activates the shades according to ambient
lighting conditions.
Dealing with Acoustics CTI also designed and installed a flexible
sound system for the AIA’s various functions
and events. At the heart of the audio system
are two Extron DMP 64 ProDSP Digital
Matrix Processors, which provide all signal
routing, mic mixing, and equalization for the
various room configurations. The DMP 64s
each control a separate zone. Zone one is
routed to an Extron XPA 2001-70V power
amplifier, which feeds ten Extron SI 26CT
ceiling mounted speakers. The second
zone is connected to another XPA 2001-70V
18 AV SYSTEMS DESIGN Spring 2011CASE STUDy
2 Sheet metal ceiling panels
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3Limited space for AV electronics
AiA’s Design Challenges and Solutions
rooM FEATUrE DESIGN CHALLENGE SoLUTIoN
1 Floor to ceiling
glass windows
Hard glass surfaces create excessive acoustic
reflections, which negatively affect speech
intelligibility. Also, during daylight hours,
excessive brightness creates a challenge for
projected images.
Use ceiling mount speakers with smooth, flat
frequency response and controlled dispersion
to minimize sound reflected from glass
surfaces. install window shade system to block
excessive sunlight, and link to control system
for room reconfiguration.
2 Sheet metal
ceiling panels
Metal surfaces present another surface for
acoustic reflections.
Carpet floor surfaces directly below speakers.
3 Limited space for
AV electronics
Limits options for thermal management of
rack electronics.
Use high efficiency electronics with low thermal
output and convection cooling.
4 Concrete slab floor Creates both acoustic benefits and challenges.
