L to R: Brian Lynch, Ken Platz (Chicago AES chair), Richard Talaske
Richard Talaske presented the design of Wentz Concert Hall, a 650-700-seat recital hall for acoustic and amplified music presentations. The Wentz Concert Hall and Fine Arts Center also includes a flexible black box theatre with 150 to 200 seats; instrumental and choral rehearsal halls; a dance studio; art gallery; and numerous practice rooms and classrooms.
Topics covered:
The use and mis-use of reactive systems in spaces for music halls
Running liveliness and its relationship to subjective preference of music halls
Applications of these design principals to the design of the Wentz Concert Hall.
THE PRESENTERS:
Richard Talaske, President and Principal Acoustics Consultant, Talaske
Rick Talaske relishes great soundscapes.The engineer-turned-scientist-turned-acoustician routinely explores the world's great concert halls and theatres. Surveying a hall's soaring spaces and elegant architectural expressions, his mind translates a room's geometry, the character of its surfaces, its materials, and spatial dimensions into acoustic possibilities. Analysis, investigation and reverence converge to plumb the space's possibilities—to take away whatever secrets and lessons it might reveal.Talaske is someone who is never satisfied with what he already knows.
Talaske's rigorous technical and scientific education resulted in exacting methodology and specific design standards. He is cheerily unapologetic about what might be experienced as "obsession with sound." People don't hire a world-class acoustician to achieve only fair results.What surprises some people is his passionate and enthusiastic advocacy for both performers and audience members. As an avid lover of live performance, he strives to create spaces that enhance live events.Talaske serves as project principal and directs all of the work in the office.
Brian Lynch, Fine Arts Director, North Central College
