Last month, the City of Long Beach received the good news that the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library has earned LEED Silver certification. Replacing the old North Library built in the 1950’s, the new library is a state of the art 24,655 SF single story facility that includes reading and activity areas for children, teens, and adults, as well as three public community meeting spaces.

Within a few years of LEED setting the standard for green building, occupancy surveys were starting to reveal a gap: many occupants were unhappy with the acoustics – noise, noise, noise! Open offices provided great daylight, views, and air movement, but the work environment suffered from inadequate sound isolation. At the same time, carpet and soft goods that can degrade indoor air quality were transitioning to hard surfaces, inadvertently creating echo chambers.