Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Acoustics in common house--not always desirable

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

I second Laura's advice. I wonder if my community is the "Virginia 
cohousing" on which Bend OR modelled its home-made acoustical panels. Ours 
are very much like what an earlier poster described, and a family who 
visited us back in the day ended up at Bend. Our panels were not initially 
built in and had to be retrofitted around numerous light pendants and 
ceiling fans that hang from the Great Room ceiling, but we did it pretty 
early on.

We have had house concerts (mainly singer/songwriters and bands) and they 
always sounded fine to me, but even if their sound quality had been less 
than optimal I would say we made the right decision, because eating 
together is basic and demands a not overly noisy room, whereas live music 
in the CH is an occasional treat and its acoustic quality doesn't impact 
the quality of our community life.

    Muriel at Shadowlake Village Cohousing, Blacksburg, VA

At 09:02 PM 2/23/2012, you wrote:

> Hi Rick - while I appreciate the music that you have brought to our
> common house, I would not trade our acoustic treatment for improved
> concerts.  I have known way too many communitiies who have failed to
> put in enough acoustic treatment and it is always a disaster.  You can
> have a community without top-notch concerts, but cohousing is defined
> by dining together!   There is nothing worse than a noisy dining
> environment!
>
> Laura Fitch, AIA, LEED-BD+C
> Kraus-Fitch Architects
> 110 Pulpit Hill Rd.
> Amherst, MA  01002
> lfitch [at] krausfitch.com
>
> Board Member, Cohousing Association of US
> www.cohousing.org