The second floor of the Maud Gatewood Studio Arts Building has poor overall acoustical qualities for an educational space. The spaces that have better, more controlled acoustical properties are the lounge space and classroom 204. These spaces have better acoustics because of the use of softer materials in the space which helps with the sound absorption. The other spaces suffer acoustically due to their lack of soft materials. Without the soft materials there is nothing to absorb the sound reverberation which makes the space loud and echoey. Another factory is that the second floor space, at the front of the building, is open to the lobby space below which only adds more sound in the space. There are some acoustical panels scattered among the concave regions of the coffered ceiling. However, the acoustical panels are not integrated throughout all the coffered ceiling so they are not very beneficial for reducing sound in the more open areas.
Acoustical panels on the market today can be made out of a wide array of materials, textures, and colors. There are durable, fabric acoustical panels, such as the ones in the third floor interior architecture studio space. Plus there are textured sound diffusers that are created to have a design of their own. For this space, in order to cut down on excess disruptive noises within the space, there should be acoustical panels integrated throughout the entire coffered ceiling and it would also be beneficial to add acoustical panels to the walls that can still provide the same tackable surface as the wall while still providing sound control. Below are some links to some interesting acoustical panel manufacturer websites.
http://www.armstrong.com/commceilingsna/article64305.html
http://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/fabric_panel/fabric-wrapped-wall-panels.html
http://www.acousticsfirst.com/diffuser-art-diffusor.htm
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