Photo courtesy Rockfon
Salina Central High School in Salina, Kansas, has completed its expansion and renovation project. New ceiling systems were installed throughout the 5574-m2 (60,000-sf) space to blend new construction with renovated areas.
Originally constructed in 1952, the facility had not received many improvements through the decades. Maintaining the school’s sense of history, DLR Group and Jones Gillam Renz Architects designed an updated and larger facility to provide more space and modern features to better serve its students.
The school now encompasses renovated computer labs, commons and athletics areas, a new auxiliary gym that doubles as a storm shelter, art, theater, and music areas, administrative offices, a career and technical education center, and science and drama classrooms. On average, 65 to 74 m2 (700 to 800 sf) was added to each classroom along with their new ceilings.
For the majority of the classrooms, hallways, offices, and commons areas, acoustic stone wool ceiling panels with a square edge was used. These panels, in either 2×2 or 2×4 sizes, were suspended within a 24-mm (15/16-in.) grid, and finished with 51-mm (2-in.) engineered perimeter trim.
The ceiling panels, baffles, and islands offer a durable, and low-maintenance system. They also provides a good noise reduction coefficient (NRC) with a high-end look.
In the stairwells, stone wool, frameless acoustic baffles help control the sound of students passing between classes. Also helping optimize acoustics and daylight, acoustic stone wool panels were directly mounted to the ceiling of both the art education area and the new two-story media center. The 4×4 sized, white panels provided high sound absorption, and also diffused and reflected up to 86 percent of light to help reduce energy demands.
