Overview

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and Houston’s Jones Hall is no exception. Spatial Acuity was called upon to document every cubic inch of the home of the Houston Symphony – a massive structure spanning an entire city block. From the front of house to backstage, down to the mechanical room,  Spatial Acuity’s 3D laser scanning and modeling teams got it done.

Process

Houston’s Jones Hall is a large and complex structure. Originally completed in 1966 by architectural firm Caudill Rowlett Scott, the building contains a lobby with 60-foot ceilings with a hanging bronze statue by Richard Lippold. The concert hall has a seating capacity of up to 2,912, with 800 hexagonal segments on the ceiling that can be adjusted to change the acoustics of the space. The building also contains rehearsal space, a green room, and all the facilities required to manage a building the size of a city block. That is a lot of space scan with a high degree of complexity.

Spatial Acuity scanned all of it.

Top to bottom, from the center stage to the marble-clad exterior, the Spatial Acuity 3D laser scanning team documented the entire thing. While the building is massive, there were a lot of sections that included tight or hard to reach spaces. Some of the more treacherous scan locations were harness-only areas directly above the stage.

There were also areas that had a high degree of complexity. For the mechanical room, the laser scanning technicians had to ensure the space was captured from every angle so the laser beam could hit every necessary surface. The crew closely coordinated with the architect, issuing multiple progress models to ensure alignment in expectations. Here is a video of the point cloud assembled from that room alone:

Result

The final Revit model ranged in level of detail from LOD 200 to 350, depending on what was needed to document the varying intricacies of the spaces. The model became the client’s foundation for initial conceptual design and program budgeting. Eventually, it played a vital role as the basis for design and construction documentation.