Primacoustic and Paramount Automation create a bespoke solution for Vancouver’s Terminal City Club
Iain Fletcher, Terminal City Club’s (TCC) Director of Club Outlets, is absolutely clear about how acoustic treatments can impact a restaurant’s appeal: “I’ve been to some places in the city with thoughtful acoustic treatment, and the experience is memorable. But there are also restaurants I might not return to because they’re just too loud. And I can’t help but think how often others feel the same – but don’t tell the people running the restaurant.”
Located on West Hastings Street in Vancouver, TCC is a private members’ club offering a variety of amenities, including fitness facilities, banquet and meeting space, as well as a members’ lounge, restaurant, and private dining room. Much of their demographic, Fletcher explains, consists of businesspeople who use the dining areas for meetings – particularly during lunch hours. Following a renovation of the space, however, he noticed fewer patrons doing so. “Despite it being a beautiful room with a very thoughtful design,” he adds.
Fletcher soon realized that an unintended consequence of the renovation was diminished speech intelligibility in the space, owing to an increase in hard, sound-reflecting surfaces and the removal of carpet and furniture that helped absorb sound.
Shortly after TCC began looking for solutions, Fletcher came across videos detailing a solution provided by Primacoustic and AV integrator/installer, Paramount Automation, for Piva Restaurant in New Westminster. “One of our previous managers had actually started working at Piva, and seeing his comments, and a video showing (how it sounded and looked) before and after, we thought we’d give it a shot.”
Controlling sound wasn’t TCC’s only concern, Fletcher notes: “The restaurant had won several design awards, so we wanted people to hear the difference, but not see the difference.”
Design Constraints and Custom Capabilities
In addition to improving acoustics overall, it was critical that the treatments faithfully recreated the design and colour of existing details, leading Primacoustic and Paramount Automation to deploy a custom-created solution comprised of Primacoustic’s EcoScapes PET panels and studio-grade, Broadway glass wool treatments.
The ability to precision-cut and colour-match EcoScapes panels made them a perfect fit for the bulk of the treatments, with Broadway ‘Arctic White’ panels deployed on the dining area’s ceiling to provide additional sound control and match the existing colour scheme.
A long-time Primacoustic partner with a specialization in projects requiring exactly this type of detail and care, Paramount tapped their ‘resident craftsman,’ Marty Nightingale, to create a design; initially for the dining room, and, after discovering similar issues in an attached private lounge, that space as well.
In both rooms, Nightingale says, “There were many limitations to where treatments could actually be placed, a wall of glass, structural design elements to recreate, millwork, mirrors, lights…”
Nightingale and Dylan Bubel (Primacoustic’s Western Canada Sales Manager) worked closely to meet both TCC’s sonic and aesthetic requirements.
To do so, Broadway panels were flush-mounted on the ceiling above the dining area to address floor-to-ceiling reflections. Additionally, ‘Glacier’ white EcoScapes panels were deployed on a section of drywall above the room’s glass doors to create an even treatment plan and a clean look that mimicked the restaurant’s existing design.
Arguably, the trickiest part of the dining room portion of the project was recreating a series of grey, felt wall features – a process that required a combination of EcoScapes ‘Slate’ grey panels in two thicknesses. “Those are at eye level,” Nightingale explains, “on the walls above the tables. So there was no place to hide a rough edge or seam.”
After removing the existing felt material, those areas were covered with an initial layer of PET as a background, upon which a variety of strips were individually cut and layered on top to match the original design, resulting in a seamless recreation that, although constructed of individual layers, appears to be sculpted from a single panel.
Like the dining room, the private room presented challenges, including: glass doors to an attached patio, decorative laminate on one wall, a large-screen television on another, and an entryway to the restaurant’s kitchen.
That left very little real estate for acoustic treatment, leading the team to use a similar approach to that taken to recreating the grey felt features in the dining area for the lounge’s ceiling: a layer of ‘Glacier’ white EcoScapes panels as a base, and additional custom cut strips of PET to hide the seams and recreate the pre-existing ceilings recessed, ‘coffered’ look.
Since the acoustic treatments were installed, Fletcher says, “I have had people ask what we did and where the panels are, so they’ve noticed a difference (in sound), but haven’t seen a difference.”
Shared Values – Superior Results
In achieving those results, Nightingale cites the importance of Paramount’s lengthy partnership with Primacoustic – one rooted in a shared ethic for attention to detail. As well as a dedication to a level of care that goes above and beyond simply getting the job done.
“At Paramount Automation, we’re outside-the-box thinkers,” Nightingale says. “So it’s a perfect fit, because with both Paramount and Primacoustic, it’s like, ‘this is a challenge, not a problem – let’s figure it out.”
Drew Campbell, Paramount Automation’s founder and owner, who also worked on the install, concurs: “We work well together because we’re like-minded, because we complement each other. And Primacoustic is always open to feedback,” adding that fosters a “how can we do this better” approach.
Better is exactly what they achieved at the Terminal City Club, Fletcher concludes: “Right away, it’s something you can feel when you walk into the restaurant. The acoustic performance exceeded our expectations by far. The unbearable echo has been replaced by a soft murmur of voices. Our members can conduct business meetings at the club because they can hear each other over the crowd. And I’ve increased the music volume to create a welcoming ambiance.”
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