What do you get when you cross a passion for musical theatre with a dedication to mechanical engineering? An acoustical consultant, that’s what! Meet Kenric Van Wyk, President of Acoustics By Design.

Kenric, you’ve worked in acoustics since the late 80s. Tell us how you first got interested in the field. Who were some of the key people in your life who helped steer you down this path?

I was always a singer and an actor. My parents tell the story about how we went on vacation in Hawaii when I was four years old. We were on a tour bus, and I was singing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” at the top of my lungs over and over again. I was having a great time – the other passengers were not. I also remember that we were in Nashville, Tennessee, when I was five years old. We were listening to an entertainer singer and piano player when my dad requested that I get up on stage with her. So, my dad was always a great encourager and looked for opportunities to have me sing. I sat down beside her and we sang “Mary had a Little Lamb”. So, I guess you can say I made my debut in Nashville at the age of five. My dad also was my “agent” and when I was 19, he arranged for me to sing the National Anthem at the Iowa Cubs (the Chicago Cubs farm team). That was a thrill!

All through high school and college, I sang and acted. I was fascinated by the acoustics of different venues that we performed in but never realized that someone designed them to perform great acoustically. At Calvin College, I met Rich DeJong who was a great inspiration to pursue acoustics as a profession. Rich had just come back to Calvin with his PhD from MIT in Boston.

After Calvin College, I headed to Purdue University for my Masters in Acoustics. There, Dr. Stuart Bolton was my advisor and really helped to open my world to the entire range of acoustical engineering.

What motivated you to go to Purdue and get your Masters in Acoustics? What were some obstacles you had to overcome along the way?

Purdue University has always had one of the best acoustical engineering programs on the planet. The fact that they were just a few hours away was a real plus. I went to visit several other universities before I selected Purdue, but none of them came close to the personal connection and engineering finesse in acoustics of Purdue.

I can’t say that I really had any obstacles. Because Rich DeJong from Calvin was so well known in the acoustical engineering world due to his pioneering work in the area of Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA), the transition was easy. Also, Calvin is an ABET accredited school, so I had a great engineering foundation to build on once I arrived at Purdue.

After school, you spent eight years in British Columbia working for 8 years. Tell us what you learned through that experience.

Living and working in Vancouver, British Columbia, was a great inspiration on so many levels. First of all, I could look out of my office windows every day and see the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. Wow, that was Heaven! Secondly, we had a great team of engineers and designers working on some incredible projects. As the largest acoustical consulting firm in Canada, we had the opportunity to explore certain technical areas that no one else could handle. We offered comprehensive acoustical consulting service, because we did room acoustics, mechanical noise control, noise isolation, audio, and video design. This experience inspired me to offer similar services in the Midwest once we moved back to Michigan.

Let’s talk about your history with Acoustics By Design. What kind of evolution did ABD have to go through as it grew from a one-man-show to a full service acoustics and AVL design firm with nine full-time employees?

For forty years, Acoustics By Design was a “one man show”. Like many of the acoustical consulting firms in the United States, it operated in a fairly narrow geographic market with a steady foundation of clients. When I returned from Vancouver, I had a goal to build up a regional firm with a wide variety of services. ABD started to reshape itself in 2001 with its first full-time employee. We added regional satellite offices in 2004. And after renting for many years, we moved to our own building in 2005. All of this growth has established us as one of the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive acoustical consulting firms in the entire Midwest.

You were one of the first Acoustical Consultants in the world to become a LEED Accredited Professional. How does green design apply to the world of acoustical consulting?

Many buildings have been designed without the aid of an acoustical consultant. As a result, poor acoustics is one of the most common complaints we hear from people in open offices, healthcare facilities, educational facilities, and all the rest. As a result, the buildings “tire” very quickly and are torn down and replaced with new buildings. Through the leadership of LEED and its focus on sustainability, there is an understanding that great acoustics help to create a building that will be around for many years to come. I’ve worked on many projects over the years that were LEED certified. In fact, I was the acoustical consultant for the first LEED certified church in the world, Keystone Community Church. At the time, it was very difficult to obtain specific points for acoustics. LEED for Schools changed all that and was the first program plan to incorporate specific prerequisites for acoustics. I am currently working on what I understand will be the first LEED for Schools certified project in the state of Michigan. To fully embrace these advances, I took advantage of the first opportunity I could to achieve LEED accreditation.

You mentioned earlier that healthcare was your fastest growing market sector. What will the healthcare facilities of the future sound like?

They will sound like Lakeland Health and Healing in St. Joseph, Michigan, or Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield, Michigan – two facilities that Acoustics By Design recently completed. They were designed according to the new AIA acoustical guidelines for healthcare facilities and they have opened to an overwhelming acclaim from nurses, doctors and patients about the great acoustical environment. The rooms are quiet, restful, and beautiful. Good acoustics means healing time improves and patients can go home sooner.

Wind energy - it’s all over the news. People love the energy but hate the noise. What is the current state of noise control in the wind energy business, and what can be done to make it more solvent?

Wind farms are popping up all over the place. When they are located in remote areas, there is very little to complain about. However, as these wind farms encroach on residents, we start to hear complaints. Similarly, people start to complain about the smell when a hog farm is too close to them. Most of the wind energy design work is still being done in Europe and there have been great advances in this industry. However, like I always say, the laws of physics still apply and wind farm noise will be with us for some time to come. The best approach is to look for locations that will have minimal impact on nearby residents, and to select a wind turbine design with minimal noise output.

On a lighter note, what music are you listening to these days? What’s in your ipod, CD player, tape deck, 8 track, turn table, etc?

Because of my background, I love a wide variety of music – except country and rap. I retired the 8 track many years ago, so those are just collecting dust somewhere. The ipod is my device of choice. I love listening to Alison Krauss sing bluegrass. Wow, great voice. In the Contemporary Christian world, I could listen to Delirious? all day. I’ve worked beside them several times on Willow Creek Community Church service trips to Germany. They are an outstanding group of musicians. I also will fall back to classic 80’s rock any time. Kind of hard to go wrong…

Where do you see the field of acoustical consulting heading in the future?

I see the acoustical consulting world headed into the digital realm. In terms of the consulting practice itself, we now work on projects all over the world. Through the use of email, ftp, teleconference and video conferencing, we can work on projects anywhere. With 3D computer modeling, we can create and listen to a room before it even exists. A caution, however, is that we see a lot of “consultants” coming in to the marketplace that don’t have the faintest idea what they are doing with these tools. The old adage still is true, “Garbage in, garbage out”. Associations like the National Council of Acoustical Consultants are increasingly important to us as a way to vouch for our credentials and ensure that our clients achieve great design solutions at an affordable cost point.

Thanks for the interview Kenric. It’s good to know that the future of acoustical engineering is in good hands.

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