St. Cecilia Motherhouse Chapel
Nashville, Tennessee
Project Type: Renovation/Addition
Seat Count: 300
Opening: 2005
Architect: Centric Architecture
AD Scope: Acoustics
The Dominican Sisters Convent in Nashville has continued to grow, and added an additional 100,000 square feet to its 84,000 square foot facility. The large expansion included a new 90,000 square foot chapel, with a pipe organ, and seating for 300 which replaced the existing 2,500 square foot chapel. The Chapel is not open to the public, but is used exclusively for the sisters. Their top priority is singing/chanting with the organ. There is limited reading of text, and a sound reinforcement system was used for this.
The original Chapel was much smaller and had a much lower volume. Therefore, the acoustics of the new Chapel were very different than the original. There were a number of room acoustics issues that needed to be addressed, including the acoustical challenges of the transcepts, and the concave focusing of the wall behind the chancel. It was important to control HVAC and other mechanical/electrical noises to achieve a low background noise level in the Chapel.
