As loft living migrates west, buyers and renters are discovering they have an interior-design dilemma that's unique to living in such wide-open spaces.

A fast-growing alternative niche in new housing trends, especially in redeveloping urban areas, true lofts are designed with an open lower level (with perhaps only the kitchen and bathroom enclosed or otherwise structurally defined), soaring ceilings of 18 feet or more and a mezzanine structure or platform forming a second level or loft over a section of the main floor below.

Lofts have become so popular, Novato-based rental market tracker RealFacts this fall will include them in its market research, which already includes rental and occupancy rates of everything from studios to three-bedroom townhomes.

Living in a loft can feel like playing in a treehouse, but those expansive, towering spaces can make lofts sound like a house of horrors—eerie, echoey, hollow and harsh—as reflected sound reverberates throughout. Sound really rattles around when lofts are carved out of commercial and industrial buildings leaving exposed beams, ducts, and plumbing as well as concrete flooring and corrugated steel or masonry walls.

Techniques used to reduce or modulate reflected and reverberated sounds are pretty much the same as those applied to any cavernous space where the quality of sound is important.

"Sound waves travel in straight lines, so parallel surfaces will bounce the waves between them, intensifying the effect," says Judy van Soldt, a San Francisco architect. "If the surfaces are bumpy (or uneven), they disrupt (and diffuse) the waves. If properly designed, they can even cancel them out. This method is used for concert halls and sound studios," she added.

Installing sculptures, plants and other three-dimensional pieces will likewise give the empty spaces more acoustical dimension to help diffuse sound waves.

Another sound-control strategy is absorption—soaking up the sound with suspended acoustical ceiling tiles and other products that can be covered with fabrics and perforated metals or hidden behind wooden slats for a decorative touch.

"Foam is popular because it's cheap, effective, lightweight and easy to install. The original solution, of course, was implemented in the castles, when they hung tapestries on the walls," said van Soldt.

To integrate art into acoustical treatments, try hiding tiles or panels behind textile-based art, including batik prints, a kimono and other materials, van Soldt says.

Artistically draping fabrics from the ceiling is another creative approach.

"The puffier, fluffier, thicker and softer the materials, the more sound absorption you will get. Glass, tile, stone and sheetrock are bad; drapes, thick carpets, and upholstered furniture are good," said Judith Wasserman, an architect with Bressack and Wasserman Architects in Palo Alto.

"There's also a material called Tectum that looks like packed-together dried spaghetti and can be painted (lightly, so as not to disturb its acoustical qualities)," Wasserman said.

Decorative acoustics are also found in art diffusors, (http://www.silentsource. com/diffusors-art.html), three-dimensional panels in a host of sizes, colors and materials.

"For ceiling or wall mounting, they come in 40 different colors and textures, they can simulate natural stone and granite, and they come in popular, maple, ash, cherry, oak. The design (within each panel) varies from 4 inches to 9 inches and that's how it diffuses sound—it traps it so it doesn't travel. It's very flexible and easy to install," said Lisa Gonzalez, founder and president of Santa Clara­based Design Alternatives, an architectural and interior design firm whose work can be found in Silicon Valley lofts and commercial buildings.

Gonzalez also works with cork flooring and cork wall treatments in 30 or 40 different designs and colors. This isn't brittle bulletin board cork, but cork so durable it has commercial applications.

"It's really soft to walk on, it has a cushioning effect and it stays at room temperature, so it's like walking on carpet. It's bark, so that makes it sustainable. You don't have to cut it down. Trees keep shedding it for you," said Gonzalez.

Finally, simply masking sound with "white noise" is another sound-management technique.

"Water features help create a pleasant white noise that's also very therapeutic. It's the Zen way of doing things. Combined with plants, it makes for a very calming atmosphere," Gonzalez said.

Real estate writer Broderick Perkins, executive editor of San Jose-based DeadlineNews.Com, writes regularly for
Willow Glen Resident.