As loft living migrates West, buyers and renters are discovering they have an interior design dilemma that's unique to living in wide open spaces.

A fast-growing alternative niche in new housing trends, especially in redeveloping urban areas, true lofts are designed with an open lower level (with perhaps only the kitchen and bathroom enclosed or otherwise structurally defined), soaring ceilings of 18 feet or more and a mezzanine structure or platform forming a second level or loft over a section of the main floor below.

Living in a loft can feel like playing in a treehouse, but those expansive, towering spaces can make it sound like a house of horrors -- eerie, echoey, hollow and harsh -- as reflected sound reverberates throughout.

Because some lofts also retain the industrial look and feel of original commercial and industrial buildings with exposed beams, ducts, and plumbing as well as concrete flooring and corrugated steel or masonry walls, surface materials can allow the sounds to have more fun than the occupants.

Techniques used to reduce reflected and reverberated sounds and improve a loft's acoustics are pretty much the same as those applied to any cavernous space where the quality of sound is important.

"Sound waves travel in straight lines, so parallel surfaces will bounce the waves between them, intensifying the effect," says Judy van Soldt a San Francisco architect.

"If the surfaces are bumpy (or uneven) they disrupt (and diffuse) the waves. If properly designed, they can even cancel them out. This method is used for concert halls and sound studios," she added.

Installing sculptures, plants and other three dimensional pieces will likewise give the empty spaces more dimension and help diffuse sound waves.

Van Soldt, who recommends visiting the Armstrong and McNichols Web sites for ideas, says another sound-control strategy is absorption. Soak up the sound with suspended acoustical ceiling tiles and other products that can be covered with fabrics and perforated metals or hidden behind wooden slats for a decorative touch.

"Foam is popular because it's cheap, effective, lightweight and easy to install. The original solution, of course, was implemented in the castles, when they hung tapestries on the walls," said van Soldt.

To integrate art into acoustical treatments, try hiding tiles or panels behind textile based art, including batik prints, a kimono and other materials, she says.

"The puffier, fluffier, thicker and softer the materials, the more sound absorption you will get. Glass, tile, stone and sheet rock are bad; drapes, thick carpets, upholstered furniture are good," said Judith Wasserman, an architect with Bressack and Wasserman Architects in Palo Alto, CA.

"Think about the ceiling planes. It sounds funky, but fabrics draped like a tent from the peak (or center) of your ceiling can help. There's also a material called Tectum which looks like packed-together dried spaghetti and can be painted (lightly enough not to disturb its acoustical qualities) and doesn't look so very industrial, but kind of cool actually," Wasserman said.

"Cool" too, for an acoustical decorative touch, are art diffusors three-dimensional panels in a host of sizes, colors and materials.

"For ceiling or wall mounting, they come in 40 different colors and textures, they can simulate natural stone and granite, they come in popular, maple, ash, cherry, oak. The design (within each panel) varies from four inches to 9 inches and that's how it diffuses sound, it traps it so it doesn't travel. It's very flexible and easy to install," said Lisa Gonzalez, founder and president of Santa Clara, CA-based Design Alternatives, an architectural and interior design firm whose work can be found in Silicon Valley lofts and commercial buildings.

Gonzalez also works with cork flooring and wall treatments in 30 or 40 different designs and colors. This isn't brittle bulletin board cork, but cork so durable it has commercial applications.

"It's really soft to walk on, it has a cushioning effect and it stays at room temperature so it's like walking on carpet. It's great in bedrooms and can come with a marble or limestone look. It's bark so that makes it sustainable. You don't have to cut it down. Trees keep shedding it for you," said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez also likes the myriad acoustical wall coverings of J. M. Lynne often used in hotels.

"From afar some of them look like hand made rice paper and rice paper is not as acoustically absorbing (as three dimensional materials), but it's an improvement over sheet rock," she said.

Finally, masking sound with "white noise" is another sound management technique.

"Water features help create a pleasant white noise that's also very therapeutic. It's the Zen way of doing things. Combined with plants it makes for a very calming atmosphere," Gonzalez said.

Published: April 20, 2004

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.