Napa Valley College
Napa, California
Project Type: New Construction
Seat Count: 500-seat Auditorium,
150-seat Theatre
Opening: 2010
Construction Cost: $31.5 Million
Architect: HGA Architects
AD Scope: Acoustics
The new 500-seat multi-use main auditorium is designed to support a wide range of musical and theatrical presentations. As such, a great deal of acoustical flexibility was required to meet the broad range of anticipated uses. To support theatrical productions, a full stage house is provided. A flexible acoustical shell is used to support unamplified music presentations. Many of the wall surfaces have retractable acoustical curtains that can be extended or retracted to adjust the level of reverberation. There is also considerable volume and height about the ceiling plane to enhance the acoustics for music presentations. The Choral Room doubles as a Recital Hall. This room and the Instrumental Rehearsal Rooms also contain some adjustable acoustics curtains for added flexibility to accommodate the varied uses of each space.The mechanical systems were carefully designed not only for minimal energy use, but for low noise. The background noise levels in the Auditorium, Black Box and Choral Room are all designed close to the threshold of human hearing. Collaboration and a great deal of coordination between architect, theatre consultant, acoustics consultant and mechanical engineer allowed these goals to be achieved at minimal cost. All of the many acoustically critical spaces are directly on grade, rather than being vertically stacked. This allowed for a very simple and cost-effective construction that still results in very high level of sound isolation between spaces.
