Mattin Center for Student Arts
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
Project Type: New Construction
Seat Count: 250
Opening: April 2001
Construction Budget: $17 Million
Client: Johns Hopkins University
Architect: Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects
A/V Installation: SPLIS
AD Scope: Acoustics, Sound Isolation,
Noise Control, Audio
Johns Hopkins University's new student arts center is located on the Homewood campus and provides support spaces for a variety of artistic gifts. Musicians have access to music rehearsal spaces and individual practice rooms. Actors enjoy a black box theatre. Dancers have a state-of-the-art dance studio. There are art rooms, a darkroom for photography, a digital media center for graphic artists, computer stations and three meeting rooms. A public café is equipped with an open microphone for poetry readings.
AD provided the acoustic and audio systems design for the new facility.
"It's exciting to see the commitment the university has made to the creative talents of its students. The university gave us a design directive to make the systems flexible and operator-friendly so that the students would have real ownership of the space," says Brian Elwell who led the audio design for the project.
Special attention was paid to the black box theatre and music rehearsal rooms.
"It was important that each performance space be separated acoustically from the others," comments Ron Eligator, who led the acoustic design for the project. "The spaces are used simultaneously, so great care was taken in the design to keep airborne and structure-borne noise from spilling between the rooms."
