Award of Merit Cultural/Worship: Ocean City Convention Center/Performing Arts Center
Two stories of underutilized exhibit space were converted into a new 1,200-seat performance venue with a proscenium stage, fly gallery, orchestra pit and balcony seating. After removing a 20,000-sq-ft concrete floor slab and supporting structure, the project team constructed a new cantilevered balcony framed with only two columns penetrating the lower level of seating and a 72-in.-deep plate girder. Multiple levels of catwalk access were integrated within restricted vertical space.
Complementing the theater’s “silent” displacement cooling system are a variety of noise-control measures, such as custom-sized acoustically lined ducts to reduce turbulence-generated noise; installation of sound attenuators at the rooftop units; and acoustic lagging over selected ducts to dampen the transmission of breakout noise.