Orion at Lumino Park, Calgary

Owner/Developer: Kanas Corp.
Architects: Casola Koppe Architects

Orion at Lumino Park is a 110,000 sq.ft., 8-story affordable rental housing building located at 5709 2nd Street Southwest, in Calgary, Alberta. It features 135 residential suites along with commercial rental spaces at street level. Built to green platinum standards, the apartment building also uses 1/5^th the energy of a traditional high-rise building.

During the design development stage of the project the developer and architectural team worked together to arrive at a design solution that would help minimize sound transmission between tenant suites. To that end they collaborated with PABCO Gypsum, a manufacturer of gypsum wall boards and  “QuietRock” Sound Reducing Drywall and together they explored and evaluated several multi-layer wall assemblies variations looking to potentially arrive at one that might best achieve their inter-suite noise mitigation objectives. Several lab and field tests were conducted on the assembly variations that were under consideration.

Apparent Sound Transmission Class (“ASTC”) testing

HGC Engineering was contracted by Pabco Gypsum to perform acoustics measurements at the high-rise, then already under construction, in order to assess sound insulation between pairs of laterally adjacent suites on both the 6^th and 7^th floors. In particular, a number of suite demising walls had been constructed utilizing Pabco Gypsum products and Apparent Sound Transmission Class (“ASTC”) testing was required to validate the sound insulation design and material effectiveness of the assemblies that were ultimately selected for the building.

Acoustic Transmission Measurements

Acoustic transmission measurements were conducted between the selected pair of suites using a loudspeaker and sound level measurement instrumentation, in general accordance with the procedures and methodologies outlined in ASTM Standard E336, “Standard Test Method for Measurement of Airborne Sound Attenuation between Rooms in Buildings”. The measurement results were processed to determine the ASTC rating of the tested assembly, in accordance with the procedures and methodologies outlined in ASTM standard E413, “Classification for Rating of Sound Insulation Class”.

Sound Intensity Measurements

Utilizing methods from ASTM standard E2249 “Standard Test Method for Laboratory Measurements of Airborne Transmission Loss of Building Partitions and Elements Using Sound Intensity”, and a sound intensity measurement system, we also assessed potential flanking paths (demising to exterior junctions, demising to corridor junctions, HVAC ductwork, outlets and junction boxes, doors, etc.). The intensity transmission loss was then determined for the common demising wall and compared to the ASTC determined above. The results of our measurements, analysis and observations were then summarized and presented to the client for evaluation.