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Auditoriums For All End-Users and All Access

The fixed slope-seating design gives good sight lines and easy access to ADA-accessible seats. The layout is ideal for graduations, noted John Rahill at Black River Design, where people have to move from the audience to the stage. People ingress and egress at the center cross isle.

Plays. Grade assembly. Ensemble musicians. Graduations. Community forums. These are just a few of the events that need to be seen, heard, and accessed in a school auditorium. So just how does one go about constructing such a varied-use facility that is accessible to all?

When planning its new auditorium, Heath City Schools in Licking County, Ohio, commissioned ArtSpace Design, an independent theater consultant, to co-develop a facilities plan with HRJL, the architect. The consulting firm assists architects, engineers, and school administrators in planning several spaces, including auditoriums.
"This is a facility intended for equal use by the community, theater production, and ensemble music," said Project Manager Jeffrey Gress of ArtSpace Design, whose firm does not endorse or sell any equipment.

Acoustics

For optimal acoustics, split-face block and angled walls were used to shape the sound. The walls incorporate spray-on insulation to both absorb sound and improve the room’s HVAC performance, explained Gress.

Gress prefers to incorporate a mix of materials. "Every material-whether concrete block, wood panel, or drywall-has a distinctive acoustical performance."
On a tighter budget, split-face block, drywall, and a more modern open finish may be employed, said Gress. Given more resources, one can add in higher cost finishes and acoustic materials.

Universal Access

The Montpelier, Vermont-based architecture firm Black River Design developed a simple, inexpensive model for universal access to comply with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) in auditoriums. The design gives immediate access to the stage, backstage, and seating areas. The need for mechanical lifts and elevators is eliminated, and a sloped-seating arrangement is still possible.

The design of this auditorium at Northfield High School has been incorporated in two other schools because the need for mechanical lifts and elevators is eliminated, and a sloped-seating arrangement, with good sightlines, is still possible.

"The challenge is to provide access to the stage, sloped-seating, and comply with the ADA guidelines-allowing people of all mobilities to have a good seating choice" said John Rahill, partner-in-charge at Black River Design. "And by doing so, we did away with the need for mechanical lifts, which by themselves are so ponderous, and slow, and cumbersome, that they become discriminatory just in their very operation."

The design keeps a lowered stage and lets the theater/auditorium still contain raked seating for better visibility. The architects did not raise the stage but instead dropped the seating in the front rows and raised the seating in the back rows, in such a way that the mid-section is flush with the stage.

Spectators enter at mid-level. People ingress and egress at the center cross isle.
"We achieve sloped-seating and still make all kinds accessible to the stage, without a lift," stated John Hemmelgarn, project architect on the 400-seat auditorium underway in Enosburg Falls Middle-High School in Vermont.

"There are no ramps," said Hemmelgarn. "Handicapped people get out easily."
This "universal design" model eliminates the need for stairs, ramps, and elevators. Where ramps or stairs have been known to compromise safety in an emergency, this model, in use in two schools and under construction in a third, gives access to all spaces for all people without the use of ramps and elevators.

The design was initially incorporated for the Northfield High School, and it was then modified to serve the needs of the St. Johnsbury Elementary School. The third facility using this design-which Rahill noted is ideal for graduations, where people have to move from the audience-is under construction in Enosburg Falls.

Fire Marshall Recognition

In contrast to the traditional, fixed-seat model is the boundless Black Box theater, which in the case of the multiple-level Center for the Arts at the St. Johnsbury Academy, was lauded by a Vermont Fire Marshall. In the state of Vermont, the Department of Labor and Industry is responsible for accessibility.

In this facility, also designed by Black River Design, the loading dock is level, so sets and heavy equipment can be easily transported. In most stage areas you have to go up to get to a loading dock.

Both the lower level and the upper level in the center are wheelchair accessible.
For the black box theater, "the name of the game is flexibility," stated Rahill. "Infinite flexibility." This flexibility is evinced by the movable seat platforms. The stage is the floor. There are no long series of stepped seating, no raised stage. The walls are black. There are curtains on tracks to create "soft walls, so you don’t get muddy speech," explained Rahill.