The project consisted of the refurbishment of the historic 1066 seat City Halls which became home of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBCSSO). The acoustic design strategy has kept the very best of the positive ‘shoebox’ geometry of the hall. However, the room volume has been increased in two ways; by setting the stalls seating in a sunken volume to achieve a modest seating rake and by opening up the roof void to include it within the volume of the hall. This also allowed us to improve scope for technical service to the performances.

I worked with Richard Cowell, Ian Knowles and Ned Crowe from Arup on the acoustic design of the space. Glasgow City Halls was being commissioned in 2005 and 2006 around the time I started the Arup Acoustics team in Scotland. I performed all acoustic commissioning work and maintained the relationship with Louise Mitchell of Glasgow Concert Halls and Kerr Robertson of Glasgow City Council Architects’ Team.

Architects: Glasgow City Council

Acoustic Design: Arup

Role: Acoustic Engineer

Completion: 2006