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I I I I I I I I I I ,I I, I I I 1,1 I I I ACOUSTIC DIMENSIONS JI 141 Halstead Avenue. Mamaroneck. NY 10543 Phone: (914) 698-3834 · Fax: (914) 698-7938 October 21, 1994 Roseville Planning Commission Roseville City Hall 2660 Civic Center Drive Roseville, MN 55113 Subject: Acoustics and its Relation to Building Height Roseville Lutberan Cburcb Variance Planning File 2708 Dear Commissioners: I am David Kahn, Principal acoustician with Acoustic Dimensions C'AD"). Our firm has been consulting with Roseville Lutheran Congregation (flRLC") and Hammel Green & Abrahamson, Architects, ("HGA ") for the past thirteen months concerning the acoustic and audio design of the Church's proposed Worship Center and Gathering Space addition. AD provides acoustic consulting services throughout The United States. It specializes its practice in the acoustical design of churches, auditoriums, concert facilities and arenas, where patrons gather to hear the spoken word and musical presentation. Recent examples of our projects in the Midwest include the Ted Mann Concert Hall at the University of Minnesota, Central Baptist Church in Sioux Falls, SD, and the new Auditorium at the Chaska High School (MN). This letter is in response to your request for additional information about the relationship between the design height of the proposed Worship Center and its acoustical requirements. The Worship Center's design has followed directly from RLC's inventory of the existing and future uses for which this Worship Center is being constructed. Roseville Lutheran Church has a fifty-year heritage of worship as a religious congregation. Music and religious drama have been, and in the future will be, and integral part ofRLC's liturgy. The music style includes choral and pipe organ worship expression, accompaniment by orchestra instruments, and congregational singing. Thus, as with most churches, design requirements include providing a structure that supports musical and spoken religious expression. One critical requirement for church music is reverberation. Reverberation creates the desirable characteristics of "bloom II and envelopment, II which reinforces the sense of shared experience, community in worship, responsiveness and the Ethereal. Reverberation is a physical phenomena, influenced by the location of reflecting surfaces, and the hardness of these surfaces. The principal determmant of a sanctuary's reverberation, however, is the volume, or the distance between the reflecting surfaces. Seating design requirements spell out the distance between the Worship Center's walls. Thus, establishing the correct ceiling height is essential to providing the required amount of desirable reverberation. Reverberation and the other characteristics of good acoustics are an integral part of the functionality of this church building design. Dallas Office: 1 15505 Wright Brothers Drive, Suite 5' Dallas, TX 75244 Phone: (214) 239- 1505' Fax: (214) 239-1504