National Academy of Sciences Auditorium Pano, DC
The NAS Building's Interior: The Auditorium
The purpose of the auditorium was to provide a larger venue in which to hold the large scientific symposia, meetings, and lectures that could no longer fit in the Lecture Room or the Great Hall. In the century since the founding of the Academy, membership had grown as it broadened its membership to include new fields, such as the social sciences.
As with the east and west wings, the firm of Harrison and Abramowitz was chosen as architect for the auditorium. Harrison's acoustical advisor was Cyril M. Harris of Columbia University who was later elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering (1975) and the National Academy of Sciences (1980). Harris later designed the acoustics of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera House, and Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. For the Academy auditorium, Harrison used a dome design similar to one he had designed for the Caspary Auditorium at Rockefeller University about fifteen years earlier. Unlike the Caspary dome, which is visible as a dome from the exterior, the Academy dome is housed within an enclosing hip-roofed rectangular structure that recreates the sense of mass conveyed by Goodhue's original building. This is reinforced by the simplicity of the north-facing windowless façade, the stonework of which harmonizes with the north faces of the wings flanking it. As with the east and west wings, continuity with the original structure was an overriding aesthetic objective, and was successfully attained.23
The interior of the dome features a novel surface made up of 70 adjoining diamond-shaped projections covered in plaster. These projections, which were fabricated in place, are arranged along cycloid-shaped curves. The resulting configuration of the interior wall and ceiling eliminates acoustic focal points and thus ensures an optimal distribution of sound. This interior shell is suspended from trusses above the ceiling, thus isolating the shell from the auditorium floor and exterior structures. Taken together, the arrangement of the triangular projections and the independence of the acoustical shell from much of the rest of the structure ensure an acoustic efficiency that makes the auditorium nearly ideal for oral presentations and an excellent setting for music.
National Academy of Sciences Auditorium Pano, DC
The NAS Building's Interior: The Auditorium
The purpose of the auditorium was to provide a larger venue in which to hold the large scientific symposia, meetings, and lectures that could no longer fit in the Lecture Room or the Great Hall. In the century since the founding of the Academy, membership had grown as it broadened its membership to include new fields, such as the social sciences.
As with the east and west wings, the firm of Harrison and Abramowitz was chosen as architect for the auditorium. Harrison's acoustical advisor was Cyril M. Harris of Columbia University who was later elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering (1975) and the National Academy of Sciences (1980). Harris later designed the acoustics of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Opera House, and Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. For the Academy auditorium, Harrison used a dome design similar to one he had designed for the Caspary Auditorium at Rockefeller University about fifteen years earlier. Unlike the Caspary dome, which is visible as a dome from the exterior, the Academy dome is housed within an enclosing hip-roofed rectangular structure that recreates the sense of mass conveyed by Goodhue's original building. This is reinforced by the simplicity of the north-facing windowless façade, the stonework of which harmonizes with the north faces of the wings flanking it. As with the east and west wings, continuity with the original structure was an overriding aesthetic objective, and was successfully attained.23
The interior of the dome features a novel surface made up of 70 adjoining diamond-shaped projections covered in plaster. These projections, which were fabricated in place, are arranged along cycloid-shaped curves. The resulting configuration of the interior wall and ceiling eliminates acoustic focal points and thus ensures an optimal distribution of sound. This interior shell is suspended from trusses above the ceiling, thus isolating the shell from the auditorium floor and exterior structures. Taken together, the arrangement of the triangular projections and the independence of the acoustical shell from much of the rest of the structure ensure an acoustic efficiency that makes the auditorium nearly ideal for oral presentations and an excellent setting for music.