Assessing Acoustic Conditions in Museums: Measurements and Multicriteria Analysis

Acoustics play a critical role in the museum experience; however, poor conditions-such as excessive reverberation, high background noise, and low speech intelligibility-can reduce comfort and engagement. While previous studies have examined acoustics in museums, they typically focus on a limited range of spaces. This study measured room impulse responses and background noise levels in 25 exhibition spaces across five museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Reverberation times (RT), averaged across 500 Hz, 1 kHz, and 2 kHz, ranged from 1.3 to 2.9 seconds and peaked at 3.5 seconds (63 Hz). Speech Transmission Index (STI) values between 0.24 and 0.51 indicated poor to fair speech intelligibility. Background noise levels in unoccupied spaces with HVAC running peaked at 58 dB, with an overall level of 47.5 dB(A). Noise Criteria (NC) analysis showed that most rooms fell within the NC 35 to 40 range. Lastly, a multicriteria analysis ranked the rooms, allowing comparisons with previous research. Findings highlight widespread suboptimal acoustics, underscoring the need for targeted interventions. This study lays the groundwork for evidence-based design guidelines to enhance museum acoustics. Future work will include subjective evaluations to assess design interventions and create more comfortable museum environments.