A Proposed LEED Standard for Indoor Acoustical Quality

Acoustical quality of the indoor environment is increasingly being recognized as important in commercial, residential and institutional building design. Unwanted sound is the most prevalent annoyance in many modern structures, leading to increased stress, loss of productivity and decreased quality of life for building occupants. The authors propose a minimum LEED standard for acoustical quality which can be incorporated into initial design or employed as a post-construction evaluation tool.