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The Secrets for Designing Great Acoustics into a Mass Timber Structure State-of-the-art performance halls can be made from timber, concrete and stone, the Groton Hill Music Center provides an incredible real-world example of next-level acoustics in a sustainable shell.
By Barbara Horwitz-Bennett, contributing writer
In the Boston Globe article, “Pianist Jeremy Denk proves the new—and acoustically stunning— Meadow Hall is worth the schlep,” writer A.Z. Madonna describes the extraordinary acoustic sensitivity of the performance venue in this way, “If you arrive at a concert at the new Groton Hill Music Center’s Meadow Hall and you think you might be too warm with your jacket on, you should probably take it off before the lights go down. Need a cough drop? Unwrap it. And for the love of music, and your fellow concertgoers, make sure your phone is silenced. Cambridge-based architecture firm Epstein Joslin and Chicago’s Threshold Acoustics may have created the region’s most acoustically alive concert
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venue with Meadow Hall, a warm and modern room furnished in handsome blond wood.” The praise for the acoustic performance of this venue is all the more surprising and intriguing because the structure is mass timber. “Mass timber, steel, and concrete, when used together, can achieve multiple objectives, including long spans, acoustic mass, and architectural beauty and warmth in the spaces,” explains David J. Odeh, SE (CA, IL, GA, UT), PE, F.ASCE, F.SEI, senior vice president, national director of building structures, WSP USA, Providence, R.I.
Classical performance venues were traditionally built from heavy masonry walls, plaster and wood paneling. That’s because these materials bounce and diffuse sound waves around the room over a calibrated period of time. The team recognized that mass timber represented a “significant and acoustically risky reduction in mass” compared to traditional concert halls. To compensate, Carl Giegold, faia, founding partner, Threshold Acoustics, and his team employed a three-pronged strategy: 1) We made the superstructure exceptionally stiff through stout laminated curved columns and an 8-ft. structural bay that limited plank spans to under 7 ft.
07-08 . 2025