The Charles Street Meeting House

I was contracted by J.M. Forbes & Co to solve acoustic problems in three of their conference rooms in the historic Charles Street Meeting House that they have converted into executive office suites. The conference rooms were in reflective and generally extremely tall spaces and echo and reverberation were problems for both people in the room and people on the other end of conference calls.

121 Mt. Vernon Street Glass — The reflection of the 121 at the main atrium entrance of the Charles Street Meeting House.

Due to the historic nature of the building, a great deal of the common areas were designed to take advantage of classic architectural details like original moldings, arches and the restored clock and bell.

Meeting House Offices Clock and Bell

Charles Street Meeting House Exterior

View from inside the “Tall Conference Room”

The extreme height (19 foot ceiling) of the “Tall Conference Room” was both an important architectural hook, but also the cause of many of the room’s acoustic issues. MBI Products was contracted to manufacture custom 4 inch thick 6 foot tall 6 lb fiberglass panels with a special off-white acoustically transparent fabric.

Tall Conference Room with Clock — The Tall Conference Room acoustic treatments and the restored clock and bell mechanism.

The Atrium Conference Room was designed as another signature feature of the Meeting House offices. The room is around 12 feet tall with a large original arched window looking on onto the sidewalk below.

Atrium Window — An absorber treatment centered on the exterior wall above an original arched window.

Atrium White Wall — The Atrium’s longest wall with accent coloring is home to two additional absorbers.

Atrium Brick Wall — The long accent wall of the Atrium intersects with the classic brick wall with its custom projection screen absorber.

Atrium Projection Screen — Another image showing the Atrium Projection Scree during install.

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