Salle Françoys-Bernier, Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, St-Irénée, Québec, Canada

The Françoys-Bernier Concert Hall at Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix opened to rave reviews in 1996.

The 600-seat concert hall is relatively narrow to promote acoustical strength, warmth, clarity, and envelopment, yet is designed as short as possible, to enhance the visual intimacy. The use of the main level tier and balcony to "stack" the audience helps to minimize distance between the performers and audience, thereby providing a compact, cozy space. Technical facilities provided throughout the hall are designed to meet the demands of events as varied as symphony, concert opera, pop and country music events, meetings and modest product launches.

The acoustical environments within the control rooms are well isolated from the audience chamber, while maintaining quick and easy access to the lobby and/or the audience chamber for technicians. A "live sound" mixing position is provided in the audience chamber clear of the balcony; this is alternately used for loose chair or wheelchair seating. Sound absorbing curtains can be easily extended in front of all walls, at all levels, of the room, or they can be retracted into curtain pockets. Reversible acoustic wall panels located under the concert platform balcony can either present an acoustically reflective surface to the concert platform, or rotate to present an acoustically absorptive surface.

Artec provided Design and Planning services covering Pre-Design Phase services, Auditorium Design, Facility Planning, Specialized Performance Equipment Systems Design and Background Noise and Vibration Control consulting. The architects for this project were BBGL•ROY Consortium Architects of Québec, PQ.