Artec

Artec Consultants Inc, is an acoustics design and theater planning firm located in New York City. The company was founded by the late world renowned acoustician and theatre design consultant Frederick Russell Johnson in 1970. In 2013 Artec was integrated into the acoustic design and theatre consulting operations of design and engineering practice Arup. At the time of the integration Artec was led by Tateo Nakajima, Edward Arenius and Todd Brooks, who are now senior employees of Arup, based in Arup's New York office.

Artec has done the acoustics design and theatre planning for over 140 projects worldwide including the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Salle Pleyel renovation in Paris, France, the Mariinsky II Opera House Basic Design for Valery Gergiev, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Pikes Peak Center, the Montreal Symphony House, Centre in the Square, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and acoustical upgrade of the Roy Thomson Hall.^[1]

The New York firm has been referred to as the field-leader in acoustic design^[2] and Time Magazine called their design of the Esplanade complex in Singapore "one of the best anywhere".^[3] The Artec design team has also worked with such architectural firms as Coop Himmelb(l)au, Foreign Office Architects, Herzog de Meuron, Andy Bromberg of AEDAS, and Zaha Hadid.^[4] The firm has been mentioned for decades in the New York Times for their many concert hall designs. They also received attention in many publications that included the Wall Street Journal, The Independent, Wired Magazine, Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and Bloomberg.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]}

History

Artec was founded by Russell Johnson, a founder and principal consultant of the Theatre Consulting Division for Bolt, Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Johnson spent over 20 years at the first large commercial acoustical consulting firm working as technical coordinator for concert hall and opera house design. In 1970 he decided to start his own firm, initially called 'Russell Johnson & Associates', yet later renamed Artec Consultants Incorporated.

His previous experience helped bring in new projects for the firm. Some of the early acclaimed facilities which Johnson worked on include the Orchestra Shell Renovation, Derngate Centre, Grand Theatre de Quebec, Centennial Concert Hall, Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater, Hamilton Place in Canada, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and Place des Arts.

Concert halls designed by Artec are known to have basic shapes and dimensions of beloved older halls like the Musikverein in Vienna, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Symphony Hall in Boston; all-of-which are shoebox-shaped and relatively small. The firm believed that acoustic quality is much better for these types of halls rather than larger ones which they believe are acoustical nightmares.

Over the years, Artec became one of the most sought after acoustical consulting firms because of their unique movable and automatic technology that helped revolutionize the field. Their design enable through movable overhead canopies, retractable draperies and associated features, the adjustment of the acoustical environment to meet the needs of different kinds of music that could suit different performances or groups. The reflectors combined with a traditional soapbox shape design are consider trademarks of Artec.^[12]

The firm has collaborated on many projects with some of great architects of the world including Cesar Pelli, Jean Nouvel, I.M. Pei, Moshe Safdie, Barton Myers, Bing Thom, Michael Wilford, Eberhard Zeidler, Fred Lebensold, Sir James Stirling, Robert Venturi, and Rafael Viñoly.^[13]

Since the early 90s the firm gained new partners and executives that helped give Artec an edge in their field. Since the death of the former founder in 2007, the company was managed by the partners and associates, until integation with Arup in 2013.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]}

Executives

• Tateo Nakajima (partner): A violinist and orchestra conductor. Joined Artec in 2001; he is one of its Principal Auditorium Designers. Previously, he established, directed and toured a private opera company based in Central Europe. He managed and conducted this handpicked company of 100+ artists and technical staff, selecting and working with stage directors, soloists, choreographers, and set designers from around the world.
• Edward Arenius (partner): Initially worked as Project Architect at Sullivan Associates in Philadelphia. He joined Artec in 1990 as a drafter, and returned in 1995 as the Director of Design and Production. A Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Spring Garden College in Philadelphia. His award winning concept drawing for the Philadelphia City Hall Centennial architectural competition is now part of the permanent collection of The Atwater-Kent Museum in Philadelphia.
• Todd Brooks (associate partner): A member of the Acoustical Society of America, the Audio Engineering Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics with a minor in Music from the University of Washington in 1996. In 1998 and 1999 he received Masters of Science and Masters of Philosophy degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University. He has been involved in teaching courses in physics and acoustics at both the University of Washington and Yale University.
• G. Thomas Clark (associate partner): Joined Artec in 1995; he is its Principal Consultant in Sound & Communication Systems for over 16 years. He is also the founder of Acme Sound Partners, nominated four times for a Tony Award for excellence in Sound Design, winners of the 2010 & 2003 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design (Ragtime & Baz Lurmann’s Production of La Bohéme).^{[20][21][22][23][24]}

Public Attention

In 2009, as a guest speaker and representative of Artec, Nakajima was invited to the Hong Kong Design Centre for its Business of Design Week.^[25] Artec also spoke at the designer event LIVE! Singapore 2011.^[26]

In addition, Artec received a great deal of press recently for their new concert hall in Canada.^{[1][11][27][28][29][30][31][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]}

La Maison symphonique de Montréal en photographie panoramique sous 360 degrés.

Projects

The following is a list of well known concert halls and projects Artec has collaborated on:

• Accolade Project - Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, FL, USA
• Auditorium de Dijon, Dijon, France

• The Bartók National Concert Hall, Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary
• Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
• Boettcher Concert Hall (renovation study) Denver, Colorado, USA
• Bowring Park Amphitheatre, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada
• Brodbeck Concert Hall, Center for the Arts; Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA

• Caldwell Hall, Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, USA
• Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami with Cesar Pelli.
• Carolyn Blount Theatre, Montgomery, Alabama, USA
• CBSO Centre, Birmingham, UK
• Centennial Concert Hall
• The Center for the Performing Arts, Indiana, USA
• Centre in the Square in Canada
• Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, along with Bing Thom.
• The Chapel, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
• Chapel on Fir Hill, Akron, Ohio, USA
• Charles W. Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts, Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada
• Chicago Orchestra Hall (consultation) Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Cincinnati Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
• Compton Verney Opera House, Compton Verney, UK
• Concert Hall - Kulturforum Westfalen, Münster, Germany
• Congress and Concert Centre, Lahti, Finland
• Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
• Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater
• Cuillo Centre for the Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, USA
• Culture and Congress Center, Lucerne, Switzerland

• Darat King Abdullah II Performing Arts Center, Amman, Jordan
• David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA
• Derngate Centre
• Disney Institute Amphitheatre, Orlando, Florida, USA

• EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore

• Faculty of Music Building, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
• Firehouse Theatre, Richmond, Virginia, USA
• Fleck Dance Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
• Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA
• Frederick P. Rose Hall, New York, New York, USA

• Gaelic College Performance Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Grand Theatre de Quebec
• Grande Theatre Du Bouregreg, Rabat, Morocco
• Great Neck Synagogue, Great Neck, New York, USA
• Gwinnett Performing Arts Center, Duluth, Georgia, USA

• Hamilton Place in Canada
• Harbourfront Centre Theatre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Harpa: Reykjavík Conference and Concert Center, Reykjavík, Iceland

• Interlochen Center for the Arts, Interlochen, Michigan, USA
• International Convention Centre, Birmingham, UK

• Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York

• Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
• Kravis Center for Performing Arts, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

• Lincoln Square Synagogue, New York, New York, USA
• Lionel Hampton Center, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
• Living Arts Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Luther F. Carson Four Rivers Center, Paducah, Kentucky, USA

• Maison de la Radio - FLAGEY, Brussels, Belgium
• Maison Symphonique de Montréal La Maison Symphonique de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
• Manhattan School of Music, New York, New York, USA
• Mariinsky II Opera House, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Meyerson Symphony Center with I.M. Pei
• Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center (platform upgrade study) Dallas, Texas, USA
• Music and Communications Building, Austin Peay University, Clarksville, Tennessee, USA
• Musikhuset Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark
• Mystetskij Arsenal - Center for Ukrainian Music, Kiev, Ukraine

• National Music Forum, Wrocław, Poland
• New Jersey Performing Arts Center
• New Testament Church of God, Hamilton, Bermuda
• Newberry Opera House, Newberry, South Carolina, USA
• North Jutland House of Music, Aalborg, Denmark
• Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

• Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa
• Orchestra Shell Renovation
• Orpheus Theatre and Congress Centre, Apeldoorn, Netherlands

• Pikes Peak Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
• Place des Arts

• River Run Centre, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
• The Ronald V. Joyce Centre for the Performing Arts at Hamilton Place, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• Roy Thomson Hall renovation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• St. Thomas Church, New York, New York, USA
• Sala São Paulo, Brazil
• Salle Françoys-Bernier Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, Saint-Irénée, Québec, Canada
• Salle Métropole, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Salle Pleyel, Paris, France (renovation)
• Salvation Army Chapel, New York, New York, USA
• Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
• Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
• Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa, California, USA
• Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, New York University, New York, USA
• Sony Music Studios, New York, New York, USA
• The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore
• Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England

• Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
• Thunder Bay Community Auditorium, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
• Times Square Church, New York, New York, USA
• Toronto Centre for the Arts, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Trinity Church, New York, New York, USA

• University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Platteville, Wisconsin, USA

• Wallace Community College, Selma, Alabama, USA
• Washington Opera, Washington, DC, USA
• Winspear Centre for Music, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada^[44]

• Zarautz Arts Centre, Zarautz, Spain

References

External links

• Artec Consultants