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San Francisco Armory

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At over 100 years old, the former National Guard Armory is one of San Francisco’s most distinctive buildings. Designed to convey the impression of a heavily armored and forbidding Moorish fortress, the massive structure features four octagonal towers, rough clinker brick exterior walls and narrow rectangular lancet windows. Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the building measures 192,300 square feet and includes the administration building (84,700 square feet), basement (68,000 square feet) and Drill Court (39,000 square feet).

Featuring an 80-foot domed ceiling and a floating maple floor, the Drill Court garnered its name from the days when the huge open space served as an indoor training facility and occasional venue for boxing matches. The 170-foot-long roof trusses support the entire width of the barrel vaulted wood roof without intermediary vertical supports, and it is reputed to be the largest unsupported enclosed space in San Francisco.

The California National Guard decommissioned the Mission Armory in 1979, and this unique combination of revivalist architecture/early 20th century machine-age construction lay fallow for years. Over the years, a variety of reuse plans fell through and eventually current owners Armory Studios, LLC purchased the building in 2007. In 2013, plans were set in motion to convert the Drill Court into a multi-use venue and the facility hosted occasional concert events.

The facility features a massive 'supergrid' 56 by 68-foot truss.

Acoustical Concerns

Armory Studios, LLC had plans for converting the Drill Court into a 4,000-capacity facility that could serve both the needs of the community as well as national tours. Yet despite the building’s 13-inch thick masonry exterior walls, sound bleed from the venue into the surrounding area led to neighborhood complaints.

With this in mind, Armory Studios turned to San Francisco-based world-class acousticians Charles M. Salter Associates, working with principal consultant Andrew McKee and the Salter team on a solution.

“Being in a mixed-use, commercial/industrial/semi-residential neighborhood required us to do sound attenuation,” notes Audrey Joseph, the Armory’s director of events.

“Part of this came in the form of six large, sound attenuating vestibules and all the walls are covered in 2-inch thick Teflon and sound blankets and our dome is covered in sound blankets. Salter did all the acoustical testing and advised us on what materials to use. We also have these very large windows on the mezzanine level that are 18-inches wide and 30-feet high and will be installing STC 45 custom shutters to cover those windows. Right now, the room sounds amazing and once the shutters arrive, it will be over-the-top cool.”

That sentiment was echoed by Armory Studios’ CEO Peter Acworth, who was pleased with the result of the sonic treatment. “Preliminary sound tests have shown to have provided a -40 dB improvement from before,” he stated.

A d&b V Series line array was selected as the house system.

Bring On the Sound System

With the acoustics under control, the Armory moved to the next phase of its bid to become San Francisco’s premiere live music venue. This entailed the installation of a supergrid, a massive 56-by-68-foot truss that can provide national touring shows with the ability to replicate the experience of a much larger venue.

The next step was adding a permanent, rider-friendly sound system, which had to handle both covering the large space as well as being flexible to adapt to different events. The sound system design was a collaboration of Adrienne Felicioni and John Faldetta from San Jose-based integrator/sound company LJ Productions, working with Audrey Joseph and the Armory’s lead tech Jon Morris, who spearheaded the project.

The system is comprised of 12 d&b audiotechnik V12 (120-degree dispersion) and 12 V8 (80-degree dispersion) dual-10, 3-way line array cabinets with 16 flyable V-SUB cardioid subwoofers. Eight d&b Y10P dual-8, 2-way point source speakers are employed for fill duties. Ten d&b D80 amplifiers power everything, under the control of Lake LM44 processors. Other components include Drawmer SP2120 speaker limiters, Yamaha SWP1-8 Ethercon switches and Larson Davis SPL monitoring. There is no large FOH console or monitoring rig, as larger acts usually bring their own and for other shows, additional gear is readily available from local sound companies. A Midas M32 console is on hand for general production duties and smaller events, such as corporate gigs.

Flexibility — as well as sound quality — were key factors in the P.A. decision. “Due to the nature of the 40,000-square foot open space, the sound system can be adapted to anything the client requires, whether concerts, dance parties, corporate events, sporting events — whatever. The system debuted in an all-flown concert style on New Year’s Eve. We have several preset configurations — for example, we could have 12 boxes per side, with half V8’s and half V12’s, and then behind them eight bass bins — on either side,” Joseph explains. “For dance parties, we can do a four-corner configuration with sound system cut in half and applied to the four corners for dance parties, while another configuration is ground stacked subwoofers — two high, with eight stacks across the front of the stage.”

A sold-out featuring Justice marked the venue’s official opening.

Sound control from within the venue was as essential as the acoustical treatment. “It’s a unique venue in terms of the neighborhood,” explains LJ Productions’ Felicioni. “We use Lake to control it, so we’re not locking engineers out of anything they need to use, and we have a hard limiter [Drawmer SP2120] on the system. We’ve used the same thing for 20 years at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA — that venue is on the top of a mountain and all the neighbors seem to have their lawyers on speed dial,” he laughs. “However, this system is not going to be a ‘set-it-and-leave-it’ deal. The Armory is a multi-event center, and you have to build the P.A. on a per-show basis — you can’t simply put a hard limiter on everyone’s system.”

Jason Waggoner from d&b audiotechnik was on hand to work with the LJ Productions team on the room voicing. “We calculate the hang and do everything to keep the energy in the room,” Felicioni adds. “The d&b rig with the d&b processing is really controllable. The subs are all cardioid, and we can fly them or have them on the ground. It’s an awesome system, and we are really happy with it.”

After a successful (and sold-out) first official event at The Armory — a New Year’s Eve show featuring French electronic music duo Justice — things are looking bright for this “new” concert facility. “In the 1930s, The Armory was San Francisco’s premier sports venue, and was known as the Madison Square Garden of the West,” notes Joseph. “With the improvements, we’re taking that title back as the City’s most important concert venue.”
 
 


Inside The Armory

  • When Built: 1912
  • Capacity: 4,000
  • Owner: Armory Studios, LLC
  • Integrator: LJ Productions
  • Acoustical Consultants: Charles M. Salter Associates
  • Total Structures Truss:
 56’ x 68’
  • Main P.A.: 
(12) d&b audiotechnik V12, (12) d&b V8
  • Subwoofers: (16) d&b V-SUB
  • Amplifiers: (10) d&b D80
  • Fill Speakers: (8) d&b Y10P
  • Production Console: Midas M32
  • FOH Control: Lake LM44s, Drawmer SP2120s
  • Rigging: Pointman 2-ton hoists