Renovation of a college gymnasium into a multimedia maker-space

The Haverford College Visual Culture Arts and Media (VCAM) project is an adaptive-reuse of an old gymnasium building. The building is stone construction, built in 1900, and unused for decades. The redevelopment included 25 000 SF with a wide range of collaborative, classroom, and laboratory spaces that support the creation, exploration, and study of visual and media arts. The main large volume of the original gymnasium became a lounge and presentation space for multi-media artwork. Significant portions of the original gym floor were removed, allowing a three-story box to be inserted into the volume to house (from top to bottom): a Media, Film Production and Object Study Room; a Film and Media Edit Room; and a 65-seat Screening Room. An original suspended running track was repurposed into flexible seating and circulation to offices and studios. Many acoustic challenges arose from repurposing the large volume gymnasium including reverberation control, structure borne noise and vibration isolation of stacked studios, and acoustic isolation of a noise sensitive screening room located in vicinity of maker spaces utilizing drills, buzz saws, and laser cutters. Audio/Video systems supported a wide range of activities, including a number of sophisticated recording, filming, editing and playback scenarios.