Metal ceiling adds atmosphere to entertainment venue
Club Nokia in Los Angeles is the center of the L.A. LIVE! entertainment complex and occupies the three upper fl oors of a fi ve-story mixed-use building. The 59,000-square-foot venue creates an intimate and popular entertainment experience with a 30- by 40-foot stage, 2,300-capacity recep- tion space, and dynamic design courtesy of Santa Monica, Calif.-based architect, Gensler. Because the facility houses a number of differ-
ent types of spaces, one of the goals was to link them together spatially. The ceiling thus became one of the central design elements because it offered one continuous surface that could help achieve that goal. As a result, Ceiling Concepts Inc., Los Alamitos, Calif., installed 8,000 square feet of Lancaster, Pa.-based Armstrong Ceiling’s MetalWorks RH215 Custom Ceiling Panels. The ceiling system offers a cost-effective solution for curved visuals by using fl at panels faceted onto a curved grid. The metal ceiling system had to fi t within and
match the atmosphere of Club Nokia. The ceiling features an extensive fl at section plus a vaulted bar- rel-shaped section that rises 20 feet above the fl oor to allow patrons on a nearby balcony to view the dance fl oor below. Additionally, Club Nokia features catering by Wolfgang Puck. With the number of food preparation areas, the ceiling panels are butted
against each other and unperforated to comply with FDA standards. Ceiling panels in all other areas have gaps
between them, and are perforated and backed with a black acoustical fl eece for sound control. The perforations are 1.5-mm in diameter, resulting in a Noise Reduction Coeffi cient of 0.65, meaning the metal ceiling panels absorb 65 percent of the sound that strikes them. The gaps are there as Gensler did not want to create a completely mono- lithic design and instead, created a smooth ceiling pattern by using different panel sizes. Meanwhile, lights, sprinklers and other ceiling apparatuses were installed between the panels rather than within the panels themselves. The installers faced a number of challenges, as
Andy Ulrich of Ceiling Concepts, notes specifi cally the number of different sized panels, which ranged from 1 by 2 feet to 2 by 5 feet. “Each metal panel had to be hung individually. An installer couldn’t simply take any panel and attach it.” Another challenge was laying out the grid sys-
tem. “This was a very intricate and important part of the job because this ceiling usually doesn’t have the spacing between the panels that we had here and doesn’t use as many differently sized panels,” explains Ulrich. “From our point of view, we consid- ered the ceiling an engineering marvel.”