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Erik Hare

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Blogs by Erik Hare

Hung T-Bar Ceiling
6/2/2008 6:32:13 AM

Like anyone, I have a few small things that bug me more than they should. But as fits my status as a curmudgeon, mine is nearly impossible to avoid while being hopelessly esoteric. You see, nothing bothers me more than a hung T-bar ceiling with drop-in acoustical tile.

If that doesn’t make any sense to you, I’ll explain. A hung T-bar ceiling is the grid that you find hanging down from the real ceiling in nearly any office and most stores. The “T” is upside down, and is a piece of metal that supports lights, ducts, and all kinds of things. Mostly what fits into the channels formed by the inverted “T” are acoustical tile; this is a flat panel that absorbs sound and often has a fake texture applied to help that process.

What’s so annoying about this ubiquitous arrangement? Actually, quite a lot. I consider it to be the root of many smaller evils that have become part of the architecture of modern life.

The first problem is fluorescent lights. I realize that these save energy and all of that, but I learned to hate them because of their incessant hummmm. More than that, the basic idea of a distributed grid of these at highly regular intervals is that it creates a perfectly uniform light throughout the establishment. Uniform. Regular. Conforming. It’s all even and smooth, no surprises around any corner. It’s not only boring, it’s enveloping.

The second problem is also distributed evenly through the grid; ventilation. No section of a store is allowed to have a glowing radiator that you can sit by, nor is any part allowed to chill down a bit should you prefer to stay cool. It’s all the same, and it’s regulated by the person who has control of the thermostat.

The last problem I have is that it’s dreadfully boring and yet everywhere. The off-white tiles are above our heads constantly, yet they are ignored. When did you ever actually see the 2’x2’ tiles that frame one side of your life? Boring vernacular items like this teach us to ignore parts of our lives, to shut out the view of things around us as just more noise, more whitespace, more background.

What’s the alternative? Thankfully, the hung T-bar ceiling is losing popularity slowly and giving way to the open “warehouse” look. The first time I ran into this I was a kid, and the Chemistry Building at the University of Miami, where my Dad taught, had recently been constructed along these lines. I have to say that all the exposed pipes seemed strange even though they were fascinating. Did I really want to see all that stuff hung from the ceiling?

The short answer is, yes, I did, and it probably taught me to look up and see every side of the world around me. That’s why I started noticing how boring nearly everything was by design and why I started learning more and more about why people worked so very hard to make everything boring.

Now, the only alternative to the hung T-bar ceiling with drop-in acoustical tile should not be an exposed everything ceiling. There have to be ways of creating barrel vaults with bendable plastic panels that allow some distribution of ventilation and give places where light fixtures can be hung. I’m sure there are ways to do this, and I have a few sketches I produce on a moment’s notice to anyone who will listen to my rant. The point is that we should try a little bit and not have everything the same everywhere we go.

I’m sure there’s a place for the hung T-bar ceiling with drop-in acoustical tile. I just don’t want to see it everywhere I go. Now that I’ve mentioned it, you’ll probably start seeing it everywhere and realize what the problem is. Sorry ‘bout that, but it’s the first step towards radicalizing people into a movement – a revolution that will end the tyranny of the hung T-bar ceiling forever!

Well, a guy can dream …

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