Providing acoustics consulting to update accessibility and other user needs for this unique triangular shaped church was a challenge that combined physics and acoustics. The CENSEO team had to address the unique sound reverberations within the church’s triangular shape as well as the convex and concave curves of the ceiling while respecting the historic finishes of this church originally designed by James Sudler and Gio Ponti.

A major component of the remodel is the relocation of the musical ministry to the main floor. The choir’s relocation to the southwest corner of the main floor presented challenges because each person within the congregation, or audience, has a different spatial relationship to the choir, and this affects their visual and auditory perceptions. Aligning the visual and auditory localization of the choir is a key step to the project goal of making the choir part of the congregation. The team implemented a sound system that leverages a phenomenon known as the Precedence effect. This is when two versions of the same sound are presented separately with a short time delay, but below the listener’s echo threshold, so that the audience perceives the sound direction from the initial source. Eidos Architects is the lead architect and Haselden is the builder on this renovation project that is expected to wrap up by the end of the year.