Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is undergoing audiovisual renovations in its Art of the Americas Wing and Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard. London-based architects Foster and Partners, Boston-based CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc., and consultants at Acentech Inc., are incorporating architectural acoustics, audiovisual design, and noise and vibration control in the museum. The new 121,307-sf glass-enclosed wing is flanked by pavilions of glass and granite, with an adjacent 12,184-sf courtyard. To ensure acoustics are suitable for events, Acentech used auralization—an aural rendering of space—to hear how sound interacts in the area before building. Among design goals are loudspeakers to disperse sound in the courtyard, and sound-absorbing materials for the galleries.
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