Mary Flagler Cary Hall singularly adds to the brightly warm [recording] ambiance.”
Audiophile Audition, reviewing Joyce Yang’s piano album Collage, recorded at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music
Akustiks is a team of talented and successful acoustical professionals who have played central roles in the most striking acoustic design successes of recent years. Attention to detail and a flair for innovative thinking characterize the work of the Akustiks team. This ensures that a completed project not only meets but exceeds our client’s expectations, while our willingness to think “outside the box” creates opportunities for success that other designers might overlook. Backgrounds in music, acoustics, architecture and engineering provide a multi-disciplinary basis for our work. Coupled with this expertise is a focus on process: how we listen to our client and work with the design team to achieve the best results.
Akustiks was created to serve the needs of performing and visual arts organizations and educational institutions. Our primary clients include symphony orchestras, opera and dance companies, drama theaters, legitimate theater producers and presenters, museums, schools of music and the architects who serve these institutions. The professional staff brings decades of knowledge delivered with sensitivity, clarity, and candor. The entire Akustiks team, both in North and South America, is committed to excellence and total team involvement in every project. The firm’s focus is to create performance spaces that are wonderfully tuned instruments for listening to orchestral, operatic, and theatrical performances that dazzle and delight audiences.
Awards
2024
- David Geffen Hall: United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) 2024 Architecture Merit Award
2023
- Bristol Arts and Innovation Magnet School: 2023 Connecticut Preservation, Merit Award
- David Geffen Hall: 2023 Architecture MasterPrize Award, Cultural Architecture
- Fisher Center for the Performing Arts: Palladio Award Winner, New Design & Construction – more than 30,000 sq.ft
2022
- Fisher Center for the Performing Arts: ENR Southeast, Best Project, Higher Education/Research
2021
- Bradley Symphony Center: AIA Wisconsin, Honor Award
2020
- Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center: AIA Birmingham, Merit Award
- The Shed: AIA New York, Honor Award
2019
- Cincinnati Music Hall: AGC of America Award for Building Renovation
- Crosstown Concourse: AIA National Awards, Institute Honor Award for Architecture
- Crosstown Concourse: Urban Land Institute (ULI) Global Awards for Excellence, Finalist
- Crosstown Concourse: AIA Tennessee, Award of Excellence
2018
- Cincinnati Music Hall: AGC Build Ohio Award for Renovation
- Cincinnati Music Hall: BD+C Reconstruction Platinum Award Winner
- Crosstown Concourse: Congress for the New Urbanism Charter Awards, Grand Prize
- Crosstown Concourse: AIA Gulf States, Honor Citation
2017
- Gaillard Performing Arts Center: Institute of Classical Architecture & Art – Southeast Chapter, Philip Trammell Shutze Award
- Park Avenue Armory: The Palladio Award, Commercial Restoration and Renovation
- Talbot Hall, Nicholls State University: IIDA Delta Regional Chapter Award Of Excellence
2016
- Tobin Center for the Performing Arts: IAVM Venue Excellence Awards for Performing Arts Centers
- Tobin Center for the Performing Arts: AIA Washington Council Civic Design Awards, Award of Merit
- Tobin Center for the Performing Arts: AIA San Antonio, Honor Award
2015
- Gaillard Performing Arts Center: City of Charleston Design Excellence Award
- Kings Theatre: TITLE III ADA Sapolin Public Accommodation Award
- Kings Theatre: Building Design + Construction Platinum Award for Reconstruction
- The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts – Concert Hall: AIA Minnesota Honor Award
2014
- Museum of History and Industry: AIA Washington Council Civic Design Award
- Museum of History and Industry: National Building Museums, Buildy Award
- Park Avenue Armory: New York Landmarks Conservancy Lucy G. Moses Award
- Park Avenue Armory: Preservation League of New York State Award
- Park Avenue Armory: National Trust for Historic Preservation Awards Program
- Park Avenue Armory: AIA New York Chapter Design Award
2013
- Acadiana: AIA New Orleans Honor Award
- Museum of History and Industry: American Architecture, Award
2012
- Acadiana: AIA Louisiana Award of Merit
- Acadiana: AIA Gulf States Honor Citation
2011
- National Museum of the United Infantry: Outstanding Achievement, Museum, Thea Award Winner
- Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo: Excellency Award, First Prize – Colombia Cemex Award
- Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo: Excellency Award, Finalist – México Cemex Award
2010
- Cleveland Museum of Art: Building Design + Construction, 27th Annual Reconstruction Awards, Silver Award
- Eastman School of Music: Design Award, American Institute of Architects
- Menlo-Atherton High School Center for the Performing Arts: AIA Los Angeles Design Awards, Citation Award
- UNCG Auditorium: AIA North Carolina Tower Award
2009
- Centro De Las Artes: Best Architectural and Urban Conservation Project, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
- National Museum of the Marine Corps: Outstanding Achievement, Museum, Thea Award Winner
- UNCG Auditorium: American Association of School Administrators/American Institute of Architects/Council of Educational Facility Planners International, Citation
2008
- Auditorio Telmex: International Theater of the Year, Fourth place, Pollstar Concert Industry Awards
- Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music: Cleveland Engineering Society, Award for Excellence
- UNCG Auditorium: Best Cultural Project, Southeast Construction
- UNCG Auditorium: Excellence in Construction Merit Award, ABC Carolinas
2007
- Schermerhorn Symphony Hall: Society of American Registered Architects, Design Award
2006
- Eastman School of Music: Design of Excellence Award, AIA Rochester
2005
- Juliet Rosch Recital Hall, State University of New York at Fredonia: International Interior Design Association’s 32nd Annual Interior Design Competition Winner
- PlayStation Theater: Best New Major Concert Venue, Pollstar
2004
- Boston Opera House: Award in Excellence in Historic Resources, The American Institute of Architects, Washington Chapter
Testimonials
Eastman Theatre – Rochester, NY
It’s a transformation! If you can imagine singing in a closet full of clothes and then singing in the Sistine Chapel in Rome…that’s the difference!”
Christopher Seaman, Former Music Director, Rochester Philharmonic
Garde Arts Center – New London, CT
…the orchestra and the theater both sounded transformed; the sound quality was the main topic of conversation.[Akustiks’] new shell…gave the orchestra a luster, balance, and bloom that was startling to regular concertgoers. The bass strings gained weight, the winds and violins a burnished luster…”
Milton Moore, critic, The Day, 2001 (New London, CT)
Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music – Cleveland, OH
A resplendent marriage of sight and sonics…the hall possesses qualities found in only the best facilities: warmth, clarity and resonance…Sound envelops the ears as if you’re planted in the middle of the performance.”
Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain-Dealer
Schermerhorn Symphony Center – Nashville, TN
…a hall where every sound is not only heard but felt… an acoustic gem and one of the most successful auditoriums built in a century.”
Michael Linton, The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2006
Signature Theater – New York, NY
…you could appreciate the two actors’ every whisper and facial expression from any part of the house.”
James S. Russell, Bloomberg, February 27, 2012
State Theater – New Brunswick, NJ
We have weeks that include ballet, rock ‘n roll, opera and everything in between.We now have a system that is capable of being used for any kind of show and that sounds great doing it.”
Tom Painter, State Theater, New Brunswick
Teatro del Bicentenario (León, GTO)
We can play piano… finally! The best acoustics in Mexico!”
Maestro Enrique Bátiz (after conducting at the opening of Teatro del Bicentenario)
Teatro Mayor – Bogota, Columbia
Teatro Mayor, one of the best acoustics in the world.”
Daniel Barenboim
Peristyle Theatre Orchestra Shell Addition – Toledo, OH
It seemed last night as if a new era had dawned for the Toledo Symphony. The orchestra has never sounded better. Suspended above the stage were newly installed rectangular sound reflectors. Their effect on last night’s overall tone quality was wonderfully positive. Gone was the uneven projection and often tinny timbre. Last night the sound was firm, yet warm; rich, et sufficiently transparent. Individual voices could easily be distinguished within the wind and brass sections. Strings soared. As an added visual bonus, the reflectors, and the golden ambiance they lend to the stage lighting, are attractive as well.”
Steven Cornelius, Music Critic, The Blade, 2002, (Toledo, OH)