Client News: Intermountain Healthcare's offices optimize acoustics with Rockfon's ceiling systems

Within the 27-story KeyBank Tower in Salt Lake City, Intermountain Healthcare's new corporate and executive offices occupy two floors of bright, comfortable and cooperative workspace. Because sensitive medical and financial information is discussed within these offices, speech privacy and concentration were key considerations.

The building, originally constructed in 1976, required new interior build-out and enhancements to accommodate Intermountain Healthcare's management team. Designed by AJC Architects, the open office concept sought to promote an environment of innovation, collaboration, mutual respect and integrity among all team members. The modern interior features light colors, soft shapes, and natural materials such as gray masonry and white, acoustic, stone wool Rockfon ceiling panels.

"Acoustics was a primary concern," said Garrett Easton, Rockfon's district manager. Combining full-height walls with sound-absorbing ceilings are essential steps to optimizing acoustics in interior spaces. Acoustic absorption decreases the distance that sound travels in open spaces and improves speech privacy. Fewer people are distracted, improving productivity and decreasing stress.

In enclosed spaces, such as the aptly named "quiet rooms," Rockfon Alaska ceiling panels offer high sound absorption with a Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) of up to 0.90. In the open office area, Rockfon® Koral™ panels provide good sound absorption of 0.85 NRC. Installed in Rockfon Chicago Metallic® 1200 15/16-inch exposed grid, both of these acoustic ceiling tiles also deliver high light reflectance, 0.86 LR, to maximize the natural light from the windows into the office interior. Extending the light transmission into the open office, frosted glass partitions add to the feeling of openness with a sense of privacy.

Rockfon's Easton and acoustic specialist, Gary Madaras, PhD, toured Intermountain Healthcare's offices after the team moved into the space in September 2018. "During our walk-through, the three main components of Optimized Acoustics – which are high NRC acoustic ceilings, full height partitions between rooms and designed background sound – resulted in a workplace that is in the top 10% for creating a positive acoustic experience," said Madaras.

Achieving the desired result, Intermountain Healthcare's staff operates comfortably and successfully from its new headquarters. The team leads nearly 40,000 caregivers who serve the health care needs of people across Utah, southern Idaho and southern Nevada. Their mission of "helping people live the healthiest lives possible®" guides the entire organization and those in its corporate and executive offices.

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Intermountain Healthcare Corporate and Executive Offices; KeyBank Tower, 15 W S Temple Ste 100, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
* Architect: AJC Architects; Salt Lake City, Utah; https://ajcarchitects.com
* General contractor: Daw Construction Group, LLC; Draper, Utah; http://www.dawcg.com
* Installing contractor: Alternative Acoustics, Inc.; Midvail, Utah; http://altacoustics.com
* Ceiling systems – manufacturer: Rockfon; Chicago; https://www.rockfon.com
* Photographer: Corey Kopischke Photography

To learn more about Rockfon's acoustic ceiling products, please call 800-323-7164, email cs@rockfon.com or visit www.rockfon.com.

About Rockfon
Rockfon is part of ROCKWOOL Group and is offering advanced acoustic ceilings and wall solutions to create beautiful, comfortable spaces.

At ROCKWOOL Group, we are committed to enriching the lives of everyone who experiences our product solutions. Our expertise is perfectly suited to tackle many of today's biggest sustainability and development challenges, from energy consumption and noise pollution to fire resilience, water scarcity and flooding. Our range of products reflects the diversity of the world's needs, while supporting our stakeholders in reducing their own carbon footprint.

Stone wool is a versatile material and forms the basis of all our businesses. With 11,700 passionate colleagues in 39 countries, we are the world leader in stone wool solutions, from building insulation to acoustic ceilings, external cladding systems to horticultural solutions, engineered fibers for industrial use to insulation for the process industry, and marine and offshore.

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