National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s New Event Center Features Rockfon’s Metal Ceiling Systems
Oklahoma City’s National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum recently opened its new 100,000-square-foot outdoor educational expansion and Annie Oakley Society Event Center. The outdoor exhibit area is called Liichokoshkomo´, pronounced Lee-cho-koshko-MO and named for a Chickasaw phrase for “Let’s play.”
Liichokoshkomo´ and the event center culminate more than a decade of dedication by the Annie Oakley Society. Named for the 19th century sharpshooter and entertainer, Annie Oakley, the society’s members include women leaders and philanthropists. Its mission is to build and sustain world-class educational experiences for children and families to teach the rich history of the American West for generations to come.
The Liichokoshkomo´ addition includes an intertribal village representing seven tribes (Caddo, Chickasaw, Hopi, Kiowa, Navajo, Pawnee and Ancient Puebloan), a rail car and train depot, a trading post, pioneer wagon, playground, waterfall, sod house and more. Walking through the sod house doors, visitors enter the new Annie Oakley Society Event Center. As the museum’s newest indoor addition, the event center hosts activities and education, as well as corporate and private events for up to 250 people.
Designed by Benham, the event center needed to accommodate a wide range of functions and people. Multi-purpose facilities face multiple challenges to optimize acoustics. For receptions and banquets, guests want to converse with others at their table without shouting. For presentations, speakers want to be heard without straining their voices. For educational activities, students want to clearly understand their instructions and lessons. All of these acoustic goals required that high-performance sound absorption be implemented inside the center.
Supporting the Event Center’s acoustic and design goals, Rockfon Planar Macroplus linear metal ceiling system are acoustically improved with perforations and an Acoutex™ backer. The ceiling’s high acoustic performance provides exceptional sound absorption as demonstrated by its 0.90 Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC).
Visually connecting the Event Center’s comfortable interior with the Museum’s outdoor exhibits and landscape, the ceiling panels feature a Metalwood® Walnut woodgrain finish. Unlike actual lumber, the metal ceiling adds a biophilic note without the maintenance. The aluminum panels resist rot, pests, moisture, mold, mildew and other microbial growth. Manufactured with 75-100% recycled content, the ceiling panels also are 100% locally recyclable at the end of their lifecycle on the Event Center.