Royal Alberta Museum (RAM)

Located in downtown Edmonton’s Arts and Entertainment District, north of City Hall, the new Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) is the largest museum in western Canada. Greeting approximately 400,000 visitors annually, the RAM’s 419,000-square-foot building houses 2.5 million items in its collection as featured in more than 82,000 square feet of exhibits on human and natural history.

Reflecting its focus on people and the environment, the fully accessible museum earned LEED® Gold certification through the Canada Green Building Council. Designed by DIALOG Design with Ledcor Design-Build, museum planning consultant Lundholm Associates and acoustical engineers FFA Consultants, Baytek Interiors provided design-assist services on the RAM’s interior walls and ceilings.

To meet the project’s numerous aesthetic, performance and sustainability goals, Baytek recommended multiple ceiling systems from Rockfon’s complete portfolio of acoustic stone wool and metal ceiling panels, suspension systems and perimeter trim. In addition to enhancing the RAM’s visual experience with various aesthetics and levels of light reflectance depending on the space, Rockfon’s products optimize the acoustics within the museum and contribute to ideal environmental conditions, helping the project meet LEED criteria.

Honoring its achievement, the RAM and its design-build team earned the Canadian Design Build Institute’s Design Build Award for Buildings, the Canadian Consulting Engineering’s Award of Excellence in the Buildings category and the Canada Green Building Council’s Alberta Chapter’s Excellence in Green Building for New Construction.

Numerous products from Rockfon’s portfolio were used to achieve multiple design goals depending on the needs of the museum spaces. Rockfon’s acoustic stone wool and metal ceiling panels showcase a modern appearance that complements the museum’s design without distracting from its exhibitions.

The white surface of Rockfon® Alaska®, Artic®, Medical™ Plus and Sonar® reflect up to 86 percent of light for a comfortable, diffused illumination that minimizes glare on the framed artworks. Reflecting less than 0.05 percent of light, Rockfon® Color-all™ charcoal and Industrial™ black panels also were installed in selected exhibit spaces for a more immersive, dramatic effect.

Rockfon Industrial black panels deliver exceptional sound absorption with a noise reduction coefficient of 1.05 NRC. Contrasting in color, but not performance, Rockfon Sonar’s white ceiling panels also provide excellent sound absorption with a 0.95 NRC. For improved acoustics and visual variety in the exhibit hall, Rockfon® Planostile™ snap-in metal ceiling panels were perforated and an insulating Acoutex™ backer was added to achieve up to a 0.90 NRC.

Contributing to the RAM’s climate-controlled environment for its artwork, Rockfon® Medical™ Plus offers outstanding performance for air cleanliness and complies with clean room ISO Class 4 standards. The stone wool material does not support the growth of microorganisms and has been tested to meet microbiological class M1 Zone 4 (very high risk) requirements. These ceiling panels demonstrate enhanced durability, dirt resistance and effective disinfection, without the use of added chemicals. Further supporting EQ considerations and indoor air quality, all of Rockfon’s stone wool products are UL® GREENGUARD® Gold Certified for low emissions in office and educational environments. Material transparency, ingredient reporting and documentation also may contribute to attaining LEED Credits.

All of Rockfon’s products specified for the RAM were manufactured with recycled content. Stone wool is sourced from naturally abundant basalt rock and combined with recycled materials to produce the ceiling panels. The metal ceiling panels, perimeter trim and suspension systems are 100 percent locally recyclable at the end of their lifespan in the museum.