San Diego has a new world class venue in the Rady Shell at Jacob’s Park. The waterfront park is now considered an “architectural wonder”- creating a world class concert venue for San Diego, and a home for the San Diego Symphony. It is a covered stage with 13,000 square feet of performance space and has a back house with full facilities.  Rady Shell is a new addition to the downtown San Diego area, replacing the previous concert site at Embarcadero.

Sound Fabrication contributed custom acoustic paneling and 3D modeling to help bring the architectural vision of Tucker Sadler to life. To ensure the highest quality acoustics and aesthetic vision, Tucker Sadler (architect) and Salter (Acoustic Consultants) worked alongside Sound Fabrication. The general contractors, Rudolph & Sletten over saw the shell’s construction and its completion. 

One of the goals of the acoustic design of the Rady Shell was to create an onstage acoustic equivalent to an indoor concert hall’s sound. To achieve this Sound Fabrication used the Revit model, while also standardizing a few panel types to ensure there were not too many variations. The materials needed to perform acoustically, but also be extremely durable in a marine environment. The sea air is known to really weather all kinds of materials, so great care was taken in this step.  Xtira was the go to choice, and various modal hammer tests were performed on the material to ensure that there were no abnormal resonances or ringing.  The material was then coated with white UV and marine grade film. After this the panels were then machined, and all panels were mounted with Mason Industries rubber isolation bushings and stainless steel hardware.  The diffusers were also made out of the same Xtira and coating.  These were then modularized and hung on Z clips.  MBI Lapidary panels were used for the absorptive treatments,

 Together with the shape of the shell and the select materials used to create the acoustic paneling, the best possible sonic experience for both performers and audience was created; giving concert goers an out door venue with indoor sound quality.  The exquisite thought out craftsmanship and design has allowed these stunning acoustic qualities to not only enhance the music experience, but also provide consistency, in acoustic quality across all music genres.  With flexible seating that can range from intimate to 10,000, including terrace seating, there are no bad seats in the house. Every seat has an un-obstructed view.

The Rady Shell at Jacob’s Park is part of a down town renaissance for San Diego, adding value to the area’s tourism, culture, and local businesses. Classical works, as well as popular and contemporary music are all performed at The Rady Shell.  Visitors have a range of experiences to enjoy both visually and acoustically from the table or lawn seating.  The Rady Shell is renowned for being architecturally astounding and has been called, “acoustically superior”, as it enhances music performances, and is much improved from its predecessor.