Arup announces opening of National Sawdust performance venue

NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Arup, a multidisciplinary design, engineering, and consulting firm with a reputation for delivering innovative and sustainable designs, announced today the grand opening of the National Sawdust performance venue in Williamsburg to be held on October 1, 2015. Inaugural performers for the opening night concert will include Nico Muhly, Chris Thile, James Murphy, Glenn Kotche, and Cibo Matto.

National Sawdust is an artist-led, non-profit venue, a place for exploration and discovery.  As well as performance, it will also provide much-needed rehearsal, recording, and experimental testing space for artists in groups of up to 70 musicians.  The project founder is Kevin Dolan.  Paola Prestini is the Executive and Creative Director. 

Arup was invited to the project early by Kevin Dolan and his selected architects, Bureau V, for our experience in designing world-class performance spaces. Working alongside Bureau V to transform a former sawdust factory in Williamsburg into an intimate music venue, Arup provided acoustics, audiovisual, theatre, lighting, and fire design services.

"Key to the successful realization of this project was the conversion of the client's specific goals into a building", notes Arup Principal Raj Patel. "Kevin had a very clear idea of the intimate, emotional connection he wanted to create between the space, performers, and audience, as well as to support the careers of artists from the very earliest moments." In order to support this vision and transform it into a tangible building, Arup worked in close partnership with Bureau V and developed acoustics, planning and technical requirements from the inside-out, defining the shape and volumetric form of the main performance space, as well as all the necessary support spaces.

Throughout the design process, the Arup Soundlab in New York was used to auralize the room acoustics within the performance hall. "I was completely blown away by their SoundLab technology", said Kevin Dolan. "My overriding mandate was that no sacrifices would be made in the acoustic quality of the space. The SoundLab enabled us to listen to the room acoustics and make informed decisions as the design developed so that, hopefully, both artists and patrons will be captivated by the final result." 

The historic brick shell of the factory is one of the defining characteristics of the building. Within that, the Arup team bought its diverse skills in acoustics, theatre and lighting to develop, with Bureau V, a highly contrasting "light box" performance hall. The result is a single, unifying, immersive environment that meets stringent technical requirements while giving the room character and definition, at once instantly recognizable, but also adaptable. Utilizing a box-in-box construction method to isolate the performance space from the exterior shell and the hustle and bustle of Williamsburg and the nearby L subway, Arup's acoustic design provides the quiet necessary for dynamic performance and recording, creating an environment of acoustic excellence for the entire repertoire of the venue.

Versatility is further supported by innovative height-adjustable staging that rises out of the floor, flexible seating that allows for multiple configurations and audience sizes on the main level, and a fully flexible infrastructure that supports analogue and digital audio and video for live performance and recording. "Flexibility of the space and the creation of an iconic aesthetic environment were both very important design parameters for the client and the Bureau V/Arup partnership", explains Arup project manager Matthew Mahon. "We employed operable sound-absorbing curtains visually obscured behind architecturally-designed acoustically-transparent screens, so the acoustics of the room can be tuned for each performance, while maintaining the unified look-and-feel of the space."

National Sawdust is the most recent addition to a vibrant portfolio of Arup Acoustics, AV, and Theatre Consulting design projects, which includes The Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, NY; The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, ON; The Moss Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech; Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, NY; Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota; and The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece.

About Arup

Arup is the creative force at the heart of many of the world's most prominent projects in the built environment and across industry. Its engineers and consultants deliver innovative projects across the world. Arup opened its first US office 25 years ago, and now employs 1,000 in the Americas. The firm was founded in 1946 with an enduring set of values that fosters a distinctive culture, intellectual independence and collaborative approach. The people at Arup are driven to find a better way to deliver better solutions for their clients. (www.arup.com)

For further information please contact:

Rebecca Maloney, LEED AP, CPSM
Arup
e [email protected]
m +1 617 412-6632

Jennifer Shelby, CPSM
Rhino PR
e [email protected]
m +1 508 685 0763

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