Located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in the city of Kingston, Ontario, the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts brings together Queen’s University’s music, drama, film, and fine arts departments in a collaborative learning and performance centre.

The university’s goal for the main performance hall was to achieve a beautiful, inviting, and intimate room for student and professional groups ranging in size from solo instruments to a 60-person orchestra. Arup worked with the design team throughout the design and construction process to ensure this objective was realized, providing acoustical and audiovisual consulting for the building and the performance hall.

The Isabel creates a major new performance venue for Ontario, that supports the mission of Queen’s University to push the boundaries of knowledge and education through the arts. 

Sound design inspired by local geology

Arup considered the shape, form, and dimensions of the performance hall, collaboratively developing its design with architects Snøhetta.

We worked with Snøhetta to ensure that the architecture accommodated acoustical requirements. Using 3D modelling, Snøhetta and Arup conceived of and refined the building’s stunning timber wall finish which is inspired by the geology of the Kingston area while delivering optimal sound diffusion, surface texture, and specular reflection.

As noise control and sound isolation are imperative for the performance hall and the rehearsal spaces, and to provide the hall with a large dynamic range for performances, Arup worked with building engineers to design a system with very low background noise with low-flow velocity duct work and an efficient under-floor plenum that provides low-noise air to the audience seats.

High-level sound isolation adds to performance enjoyment

Arup worked with structural engineers to design a complete structural isolation joint that extends around the hall perimeter and ensures that structure-borne noise and vibration from adjacent rehearsal and performance spaces, bathrooms, and mechanical rooms do not transmit into the hall.

The addition of a massive outer poured-in-place concrete wall to control airborne noise helps achieve complete sound isolation. Box-in-box constructions were designed for the flat-floor orchestral rehearsal room, studio theatre, and percussion practice rooms, which also require high-level sound isolation for rehearsals and audiences’ enjoyment of performances.

Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts interior

Arup provided acoustical and audiovisual consulting for the building and the performance hall.

The acoustics have soul…The Isabel has the depth of sound that resonates within all of us in the hall, producing a very beautiful experience.

Tricia Baldwin

Former Managing Director, Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts