Rebecca Maloney
Americas Press Office ,Boston
Arup provided acoustics, audiovisual, theatre, lighting, and fire design services to transform a former sawdust factory in Brooklyn, New York, into an intimate music venue.
Arup provided acoustics, audiovisual, theatre, lighting, and fire design services to transform a former sawdust factory in Brooklyn, New York, into an intimate music venue.
National Sawdust is an artist-led, non-profit performance venue in Williamsburg that will also provide much-needed rehearsal, recording, and experimental testing space for artists and musicians. We 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.
The historic brick shell of the factory is one of the defining characteristics of the building. Within that, the Arup team worked in close partnership with Bureau V to develop 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. Throughout the design process, the Arup Soundlab in New York was used to auralise the room acoustics within the performance hall.