College Football Hall of Fame | Acoustic Control


The Challenge:

The exterior of the rotunda at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, GA looks very much like a football. “It’s an iconic piece of architecture,” says project architect Emery Leonard of tvsdesign in Atlanta. “Some people call it a football – some people call it a helmet.”

The design team wanted the interior of the rotunda to convey the same sense of energy about the game. “We wanted visitors to know that they were inside that same football or helmet,” says Leonard. “We wanted that energy to be experienced from both outside and inside the building.”

The design team was looking for a ceiling and wall system that would control acoustics while softening the raw stadium aesthetic of the space. The ceilings and walls also needed to be a neutral color that would not appear to favor any one team.  

The Solution:

Mirroring the warm, brown color of the football-shaped exterior, the design team selected WOODWORKS ceiling and wall panels from Armstrong Ceiling Solutions to control acoustics and visually soften the interior of the building. The real wood veneer panels have a NATURAL VARIATIONS Light Cherry finish, which resembles the color of a football.

In the Hall of Fame room, where the game’s greatest legends are revered, custom WOODWORKS Channeled wall panels control acoustics while contributing to the formal atmosphere of the space. Perforated with an acoustical backing, the panels have an NRC of 0.70, meaning they absorb 70 percent of the sound that strikes them.

In the theater, layers of WOODWORKS Linear panels control acoustics and heighten the visual energy of the space. Perforated with an acoustical backing, the panels, which are installed in folded planes that go up the walls and across the ceiling, have an NRC of 0.60. To enhance the acoustics, layers of OPTIMA panels, with an NRC of 0.90, are installed between the folds of wood panels in the ceiling. “We used a combination of materials to bounce the sound around and keep it from leaking out into other spaces,” says Leonard. The same WOODWORKS Linear ceiling panels help control acoustics in the lobby.

“The project had a lot of exposed concrete and steel,” says Leonard. “The wood is the third element that softens out the whole interior both acoustically and visually.”

Project: College Football Hall of Fame

Location: Atlanta, GA

Architect: tvsdesign, Atlanta, GA

Products: WOODWORKS Ceilings
WOODWORKS Walls