Caradco
Dubuque, IA
Quiet Qurl® 65/075 N MT
To supply a mix of new and old, preserving the history and integrity of a century old building, all while providing a new and modern live/work space for the city’s growing downtown population. These goals were set forward when the initial plan to convert a historic piece of Dubuque Iowa’s real estate into a brand new mixed used center.
Dubuque Iowa, a small, but budding town, is set right alongside the Mississippi River where Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa all meet. With a recent influx of young professionals and tourism due to a recent opening of a casino, the city was in a great need of additional housing. The city planners and local developers quickly looked to the stock of unused historic buildings to fill that void.
They looked in Dubuque’s Historic Millwork District at the old Caradco Millwork Factory. To convert such an enormous building, the size of an entire city block, was quite a challenge for the design and development team. They wanted to not only provide a great aesthetic to the project, but to also provide all the luxuries of a top of the line new construction product. The building includes various amenities, top of the line security equipment, high end finishes, as well as innovative building products to provide the comfortable living spaces that the type of tenants they wanted to attract would desire.
An example of an innovative solution to a potential problem was how they addressed the amount of noise that could pass through the floor/ceiling assembly. The designers want to preserve the loft feel for the building. To do this, they made sure to keep the building old wood joists exposed as well as provide a industrial polished concrete as the buildings finish flooring. Although this look can provide great aesthetics, it greatly reduces the ability to control sound.
Noise Control Solution: Quiet Qurl 65/075 N MT
That’s where KEENE Building Products’ Quiet Qurl 65/075 N MT entangled net sound mat came in to play. The building designers along side KEENE decided that under the limitations of the assembly coupled with the expectations of the building’s owners that the most powerful sound mat on the market was the only choice for this project.
Quiet Qurl 65/075 N MT is a ¾” thick sound mat that is equipped with KEENE’s patented “Muffling Technology.” When installed underneath a layer of concrete, Quiet Qurl 65/075 N MT is able to overcome the difficulty of controlling impact noise caused by footfall that an assembly such as the one proposed for the Caradco Building would have otherwise. Through this process the designer were able to provide a comfortable and quiet space to their tenants without sacrificing the loft look they coveted.
It took an endless amount of hours at the drawing board and construction site, but the Caradco Building is now almost fully occupied and open for business. Hopefully the buildings owners, tenants, and the city of Dubuque can enjoy all the work that went into it for another 100 years.
Sounds good, doesn’t It?
See Project Details