Acoustics for Historic Preservation at Foundation Hotel and Apparatus Restaurant

The historic circa-1929 Detroit Fire Department Headquarters provides an intriguing backdrop for the 100-room boutique Detroit Foundation Hotel and Apparatus Restaurant.

The Foundation Hotel preserves firehouse details such as the executive office wood paneling in historic guest suites, while the Apparatus Room restaurant offers an industrial-chic dining experience in the historic Detroit Fire Department Headquarters. The renovation preserved many original firehouse details, including subway tile walls and the Apparatus Room’s fire truck and equipment room doors.

Soundscape Engineering designed atmosphere-specific acoustics for three distinct spaces: the lively 106-seat open kitchen-style Apparatus Room, the intimate Chef’s Table dining room, the quieter Private Dining Room, the elegant retro meeting rooms, and the casual podcast recording studio.

Sound isolation in the historic guest suites meets luxury-level expectations while preserving the historic materials in the spaces. In addition to enhancing diners’ comfort, the acoustic design also helps separate the restaurant from the hotel’s registration area. Through the strategic use of localized sound absorption, the spaces are perceived as more intimate and offer improved speech intelligibility.

The Fifth-Floor Event Space, which is new construction above the attached historic 1880’s Pontchartrain Wine Cellars building, required robust sound isolation and attention to room acoustics because of its sensitive location above guest rooms.