Green Acoustics at green.sacnc.com Stewart Acoustical Consultants

LEED requires  classrooms and other core learning spaces as specified in ANSI Standard S12.60-2002

The classroom acoustics standard defines core learning spaces as:

“Spaces for educational activities where the primary functions are teaching and learning and where good speech communication is critical to a student’s academic achievement. These spaces include, but are not limited to, classrooms, (enclosed or open plan),instructional pods or activity areas, group instruction rooms, conference rooms, libraries, offices, speech clinics, offices used for educational purposes and music rooms for instruction, practice and performance.

Specifically NOT a core learning space (according to the classroom acoustics standard)  are:

ancillary learning spaces.  Spaces where good communication is important to a student’s educational progress but for which the primary educational functions are informal learning,  social interaction or similar activity other than formal instruction.  These areas include, but are not limited to, corridors, cafeterias, gymnasia, and indoor swimming pools.

In the LEED for schools reference Guide the words “Regularly occupied” is a measure used for daylighting and other credits etc., not acoustics prerequisites and credits.  “Classrooms and other core learning spaces’ is language specific to the classroom acoustics requirements in LEED and is the same language found in the classroom acoustics standard.  The intent was to clearly require in LEED the same as the classroom acoustics standard for core learning spaces and not to require the ancillary space requirements.  However, gymnasiums (gymnasia) were included on the list of regularly occupied, classroom and core learning spaces.  Email correspondence with USGBC has confirmed that the classroom acoustics standard is the intent and thus the standard’s definition of a gym as ancillary trumps the error in the LEED for schools reference guide.   Thus gyms are NOT core learning spaces.

As a word of advice, if the name of a particular space is missing, the litmus test is the classroom acoustics standard definition: “Spaces for educational activities where the primary functions are teaching and learning and where good speech communication is critical to a student’s academic achievement.”

More details on this, including the lists supplied by the LEED for schools reference guide can be found in this Green Acoustics bulletin I made here

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Many may be interested in how these acoustical criteria found their way into the LEED program. There are many good articles, but here is one told from the perspective of the acoustical consultants involved in the effort. It takes you through understanding where things came from and where things sit now. The audience is those who study acoustics or are acoustical consultants (hence the perspective) but it provides a backdrop for understanding the ‘why’. It was a presentation given at the Fall meeting of the Acoustical Society of America at Miami, Florida, in November of 2008. The link below connects to the proceedings PDF (POMA – Proceedings of Meetings in Acoustics) which is the text from the presentation.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Schools-2009 Acoustics Prerequisite
and Credit – Evolution and Future Direction
Alexis D. Kurtz*, Daniel C. Bruck, Charles Salter and David Lubman

The article can be found here

There is a strong need for reliable and practical information on the impact on and requirements of acoustics in green building rating systems and the impact of green buildings on acoustics.  We are currently devising an online source for information, advice and analysis, both free and where appropriate for a fee as an added service to our clients and the architectural community at large.

This will begin as a newsletter and blog, but it is our intent to serve the needs of the architectural community and our clients by offering learning, training, tools, forums, and other useful forms of education, advice, and analysis to assist with acoustical concerns in the design of green buildings.  It is our hope that we can more effectively disseminate our knowledge and expertise, and create a win-win by reducing the costs for acoustical analysis and other services while allowing us to increase our potential reach.   The rating systems with greatest implication include LEED for schools(TM) and LEED for Healthcare(TM), and other similar rating systems.

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