The Quiet Site

Believe it or not, the Maryknoll School in Honolulu has existed for years without a school gymnasium. Students at the high school have spent the past 82 years traveling to other schools or parks in order to practice and compete in various sporting events. Hardly fair.

The gym itself is part of the grade-school campus but is designed for use by everyone. The gym has a NBA-regulation basketball court and is the only school gymnasium in the state to have central air conditioning.

What do we like about the gym? The fact that it is soundproof, of course. Developers understood the impact a formal gym would have on the community and nearby residental buildings and took special care in developing a gym complete with soundproof insulation. Kudos to the contractors for the excellent planning skills!

Young George Sampson, one of Britain’s Got Talent’s most recent stars, recently found himself evicted from his London Flat. Why, you ask? He was playing his music just a bit too loud. The neighbors complained and when his lease came up for renewal the rental agents took the opportunity to nonrenew his lease.

The funny part of the story is that he wasn’t playing any type of rock, punk, or rap music. His favorite music is, believe it or not, the soundtrack from Les Miserables.

George Sampson is, for now, staying in a London Hotel until he can find a new place to stay. Hopefully his new home will have soundproof floors and walls to protect his neighbors from not only his music but from his dancing as well!

More than 70 years ago, when Seton Hall evolved into being, there was no separate performing arts center. This fall, and $21 million dollars later, Seton Hall will finally open the doors to it’s brand new 73,000 square foot center. Inside the building undergraduate students will find a number of large performance stages, classrooms, and faculty offices.

Perhaps most interesting are the practice rooms where students can practice their voice or instrument lessons without disturbing others. You would expect the noise levels in a performing arts center to be high but nothing could be further from the truth. The walls throughout the building were specially designed for soundproofing!

Over in the UK the owner of an Oakham pub is being forced to soundproof his establishment. Just over a year ago, John Woods applied for permission to convert the property from a simple shop into a pub and restaurant. He was granted permission with the stipulation he would follow certain guidelines.

What were the guidelines? Soundproofing, for one. Of course, Mr. Woods decided his patrons weren’t noisy and didn’t go through with the plan. Now, he has until October to build a brick wall behind the pub’s garden and install other soundproofing materials. If not, his pub will be a thing of the past!

We read a devastating story this week about a historic building in the UK being forced to close over soundproofing issues. Yes – that’s right – soundproofing. Can you believe it?

The owners of the historic Cooperage were forced to close the building, which housed a pub. Why? Because some genious architect decided to build a row of apartment buildigns on the same block and when the residents moved in they began complaining about the noise from the busy pub.

Now, we see a number of issues with this situation. First of all, why didn’t the architects, knowing plenty about the area in which they were building, properly sound proof the apartments? Second, why didn’t the people moving into the apartments take alook at the area they were preparing to move into?

Sadly, residential communities tend to win battles against businesses when it comes to noise. Despite the fact that the historic Cooperage was there first (noise and all) it was forced to close and will sit vacant until someone has the money to spend in soundproofing. We sincerely hope the building isn’t left to rot in the meantime.