Electronic Arts Vancouver Aurora

About This Project

Electronic Arts (EA) Vancouver, one of the region’s largest and oldest video game studios, required a rapid expansion solution after outgrowing its Burnaby headquarters. The project required a fast, flexible design solution capable of supporting both focused work and highly collaborative game-development activities. This need for additional office space in late 2020 led to the development of the EA Aurora facility. The project represents a strategic response to accommodate growing teams while enhancing workplace functionality and acoustic comfort. The facility supports a dynamic work environment, including open office areas, collaborative zones, meeting rooms, and specialized spaces such as game lounges, all requiring a sophisticated acoustic design to balance focus and collaboration.

Scope of Services

As the acoustical consultant for EA Vancouver Aurora, BKL was engaged to address significant acoustic challenges within the open office and collaborative environments. The scope focused on creating a balanced acoustic landscape that supports both focused work and interactive collaboration. BKL’s comprehensive services included:

Sound isolation: Developing performance criteria for walls, doors, and floor/ceiling assemblies to control noise transfer. Recommendations targeted STCc ratings of 50 for rooms requiring speech privacy, 45 for less sensitive spaces, and enhanced ratings for high-noise areas.
Room acoustics: Advising on sound absorption strategies to manage reverberation, targeting 0.8 seconds or less in open spaces and 0.6 seconds or less in meeting rooms and private offices per LEED acoustic targets.
Open office shielding: Proposing design interventions such as high partitions (min. 6 ft), screens, and acoustic panels to interrupt line-of-sight and reduce direct sound propagation between collaborative and quiet work areas.
Building noise control: Establishing background noise level criteria for HVAC systems, targeting NC 30 for enclosed offices and small meeting rooms, NC 25 to 30 for larger or AV-enabled meeting rooms, and allowing NC 40 to 45 for open workspaces and corridors. BKL also recommended a dedicated sound masking system to create a consistent background sound level, improving speech privacy in open office areas.

BKL collaborated closely with the design team to integrate these acoustic solutions early in the process, providing detailed recommendations tailored to the diverse functional needs of a modern game development studio.

Project Benefits

BKL’s acoustic design directly supported EA’s operational and cultural needs by:

Ensuring Confidentiality: High-performance sound isolation in private offices and meeting rooms kept sensitive conversations private, supporting both focused work and confidential discussions.
Minimizing Distractions: Strategic sound absorption and physical shielding in open areas reduced noise intrusion from collaborative and recreational zones, helping to maintain focus and productivity.
Supporting Functional Versatility: Carefully controlled reverberation times and background noise levels allowed spaces to function effectively for both quiet, focused work and lively, collaborative activities.
Providing a Future-Ready Foundation: The comprehensive acoustic strategy created a flexible and high-quality baseline environment, capable of adapting to evolving team structures and work styles.

BKL’s acoustic consulting helped transform EA Vancouver Aurora into a functional, comfortable, and acoustically sophisticated workplace, aligning with Electronic Arts’ vision for a high-performance studio environment that supports both creativity and productivity.

The People Behind Our Work

Our Technical Leads
Our Team

Paul Marks

M.Sc., MIOA

Vice President, Project Delivery

Paul Marks, M.Sc., MIOA

Vice President, Project Delivery

Paul Marks joined BKL in 2013. He is a full corporate member of the UK Institute of Acoustics and the Canadian Acoustical Association. He has over 20 years’ experience in the measurement, analysis, and assessment of noise, vibration, and acoustical matters and is a former member of the technical advisory team working with the UK government on noise and statutory nuisance issues. During this time, Paul has undertaken major projects within Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

He has experience in a wide range of multi-disciplinary environmental assessment projects including highway, rail, and air transportation infrastructure, mixed-use and brownfield regeneration schemes, renewable energy facilities, and power generation plants.

Paul also has experience in a broad range of building and architectural noise assessment projects including the design of residential, office, educational, and commercial buildings. He has also undertaken acoustical studies for major infrastructure developments including work in the design of appropriate sound-fields for room-spaces in multi-occupancy buildings, including atriums and performance spaces. His work regularly involves close liaison with other acoustical engineers, planning consultants, architects, designers, and a variety of specialist environmental consultants.

Paul is an experienced expert witness within the UK and has a broad experience of planning, licensing and statutory nuisance proceedings as well as being responsible for the successful design of a variety of impact mitigation measures including detailed engineering solutions, lay-out design, and administrative regimes where it has been necessary to closely liaise with clients, designers, and regulatory bodies in order to provide developments in accordance with sustainable principles.
Katrina Scherebnyj

M.A.Sc., P.Eng., MIOA

Technical Director, Building Acoustics

Katrina Scherebnyj, M.A.Sc., P.Eng., MIOA

Technical Director, Building Acoustics

Katrina Scherebnyj started consulting in acoustics in 2007 in England and joined BKL in 2014. Her experience covers architectural acoustics, mechanical noise control, and environmental noise control, and she has worked on major projects in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

In architectural acoustics, Katrina has worked on a range of new builds and refurbishment projects including schools, universities and higher education facilities, hospitals and healthcare facilities, performance spaces, cinemas, laboratories, office buildings, hotels, and residential buildings. She has provided acoustical design services in relation to sound insulation, room acoustics, and noise control.

Katrina was a co-author of Music Accommodation in Secondary Schools: A Design Guide, published for the UK Department for Education in 2010. Researching the guide, she carried out acoustical measurements in the music departments of several schools and interviewed music teachers and students on the suitability of their music spaces.

Katrina has extensive experience modelling internal sound fields and has carried out numerous models of performance spaces, lecture theatres, and other spaces where acoustical design is critical. She also has experience modelling outdoor noise propagation and has constructed and reviewed noise models for Columbia Containers in Vancouver, BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals, the Pinnacle (once planned to be London’s tallest building), Crossrail, and other transportation projects.

Katrina is a member of the Canadian Acoustical Association and the Institute of Acoustics (UK).
Henning Schlechtriem

M.Sc.

Managing Specialist Acoustical Consultant

Henning Schlechtriem, M.Sc.

Managing Specialist Acoustical Consultant

Henning Schlechtriem, M.Sc., joined BKL in February 2020. He has 8 years of international project experience working as professional acoustical consultant in the design and assessment of residential and non-residential buildings.

Henning has a Master’s Degree in Acoustics with Environmental Applications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering with specialization in building physics and acoustics. His professional expertise focuses on the fields of architectural and environmental acoustics. He is a proficient with software such as Odeon, SoundPLAN, STRUTT, Insul, Rhino+Grasshopper, Max/MSP, and with measurement equipment from Brüel And Kjær, NTi and Norsonic.

He has worked together with architects, investors, municipalities, as well as structural and mechanical engineers, covering a wide range of projects including office, residential, and mixed-use buildings, hotels, hospitals, schools, and cultural venues. His work has involved the acoustical design and on-site assessment of room acoustics, sound insulation including flanking transmission, environmental noise and noise from building services.

Henning has given presentations to architects and technical planners to share his knowledge about the acoustical design of masonry, concrete and lightweight constructions, timber-concrete hybrid buildings and general acoustical challenges during the design of buildings.

He is a member of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akustik, the German Association of Acoustics (DEGA) and is an Approved Assessor for Acoustics and Building Physics at the Chamber of Engineers in NRW and Hessen (Germany).
Andrew Williamson

P.Eng., B.S.M.E.

Specialist Acoustical Consultant

Andrew Williamson, P.Eng., B.S.M.E.

Specialist Acoustical Consultant

A graduate of the University of Victoria, Andrew Williamson holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and has practiced as an acoustical consultant in BC for over two decades. He joined BKL in 2023.

During his career, Andrew has worked on numerous projects involving environmental noise assessments, building noise and vibration control, and architectural acoustics. As a project manager, Andrew has led acoustics teams on a variety of projects across sectors including cultural and recreation, education and research, health care, industrial, commercial, and residential.

Andrew has attended public meetings, open houses, and government-sponsored working groups to present and discuss technical information with the public, municipal councils, and members of the government and other organizations. In addition, Andrew has acted as an expert witness in BC Supreme Court and participated in a joint review panel hearing for the environmental assessment of a major infrastructure project.

Andrew is a Professional Engineer registered with Engineers and Geoscientists BC.