Thorburn Associates

Thorburn Associates
Private
Industry engineering consulting
Founded 1992
Headquarters San Francisco, CA
United States
Offices in Los Angeles, CA & Raleigh-Durham, NC
Key people
 Lisa Thorburn, President
Steve Thorburn, Principal
James Horn, Associate Principal
Derek Meares, Associate Principal
Website

Thorburn Associates, Inc. (TA) is a design and engineering firm specializing in the collaborative practice of Acoustically Integrated Architecture (AIR). The company, founded in 1992 by Lisa A. Thorburn, CTS, and Steven J. Thorburn, PE, CTS-D, CTS-I, maintains offices in California and North Carolina. TA provides acoustical consulting and technology system engineering to architects, facility owners, and end-users around the world. Projects include new construction and renovation for the commercial, corporate, leisure, public, residential, house of worship and retail industries.

Philosophy and Practice

TA advocates Acoustically Integrated Architecture (AIR), a holistic best practice which seeks the optimal interface of disciplines for a result that supports the specific intended uses of the building. The architect and building designer team up with the acoustician/systems designer at an early conceptual stage of the project to make the most of their complementary expertise. In practical terms, AIR is applied by envisioning a structure and its systems as a whole in which architectural elements are aesthetically and functionally integrated with the technical systems that are essential components of today's buildings, but also represent significant sources of noise: HVAC, mechanical systems, reinforced audio, plumbing. AIR isolates or zones areas of noise-generating components and activities from quiet areas, controlling the travel of noise from one area to the next, controlling the acoustic or reverberant buildup of sound, and controlling noise at its source. The goal is an environment that facilitates community, communication and interaction. AIR also endeavors to take into account acoustics, sightlines and lighting needs to design optimal presentation spaces within a building, with a view to the audiovisual systems it will contain.

Steven Thorburn sits on the Executive Committee of the Themed Entertainment Association and is a regular columnist for Systems Contractor News .

Notable Projects

The GSA San Francisco Federal Building at Seventh and Mission Streets is a new office complex completed in 2006 and managed by the U.S. General Services Administration. The 18-story, 605,000-square-foot (56,200 m2), LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) structure features conversational stairwells designed to foster and facilitate interaction between employees. The extra-deep stair landings with built-in window seats allow people who meet on the stairs to move out of the way of foot traffic to chat. An acoustical wall treatment designed by TA in cooperation with the architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis, prevents the sounds of conversation from spilling out of the stairwells into the office spaces. Encounters between employees are further supported by the elevator system, which stops only at every other floor. As a result employees are frequently obliged to use the stairs, which saves energy and promotes physical exercise. The building received an award from CoreNet Global in the category of “Public Sector and Government” during CoreNet’s annual Summit in Denver, Colo., on April 30, 2007.

Thorburn Associates and SPL were the audiovisual consultants, working with James Harb Architects, in the 2003 conversion of the 1912 Medinah Temple in Chicago into the 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) Bloomingdale's Home & Furniture Store for Federated Department Stores (Macy's). Trade journalist Dawn Allcot in the January 2004 Sound and Communications magazine describes the project at 600 N. Wabash Ave., in the city’s River North area, as “walking the tightrope between maintaining the historic integrity of the building and installing top-of-the-line AV systems to enhance the shopping experience.”

The Southwest Securities Financial Markets Center at Baylor University Hankamer School of Business in Waco, TX received a Grand Prize for classrooms and training facilities from Presentations magazine in 2005 . TA was system designer, working with architect Stanley G. Love, AIA.

Articles

Awards

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