Your Trusted Acoustics Partner
With over a 100 years of combined expertise and wide range of skills in acoustics, noise, vibration, and technology, Westside Acoustics is your go-to resource for expert solutions. Whether you're optimizing a performance space, integrating advanced technology, or reducing noise, our multi-disciplinary approach ensures excellence in every aspect of design.
Experience Meets Innovation
As a new establishment, our team of acousticians, engineers, and scientists with over 100 years of combined experience are motivated and energized to bring problem-solving skills and forward-thinking solutions to the relationship between sound, technology, the built environment, and the people using such environment.
Collaborative Problem-Solving
Our work is both broad and highly specialized, requiring dedication and a deep passion for acoustics. We love what we do and take pride in delivering tailored solutions. We partner with clients to explore solutions that balance performance demands, project complexities, and evolving technologies, ensuring seamless integration at every stage.
Our Team
John LoVerde FASA
John LoVerde is the founding partner and President of Westside Acoustics & Vibration Engineering. With thirty-five years in the field of architectural acoustics, John brings a deep technical knowledge base to his clients. John has designed buildings in every sector, including housing, hospitality and resorts, education for K-12 and C&U, entertainment, performing arts, commercial core & shell and tenant improvement, fitness facilities, healthcare, and urban planning. John assists clients on projects of all sizes.
John provides not only acoustical technical expertise but sensitivity to client needs. He is able to develop solutions responsive to those needs, resulting in a design that is finely attuned with client goals.
Innovation is a hallmark of John’s career. Along with co-author Wayland Dong, he developed a paradigm-shifting approach for impact noise assessment in two dimensions, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. This approach responds to many of the historical impact noise rating problems, yielding superior tools for designer, evaluator, and building owner. Another innovation is development of an acoustical design risk management system for developers. This system helps optimize acoustical performance with cost, aesthetic, and other design considerations, transforming client design portfolios and maximizing client profits.
Wayland Dong
Wayland Dong joined Westside Acoustics & Vibration Engineering in 2025 and brings twenty-seven years of experience as an acoustician, consultant, and project manager to the team.
With his education in physics, Wayland has long been a technical expert and innovator, supporting a wide variety of projects across his career. He has been instrumental in development of statistical analysis techniques that provide clients with robust design recommendations and an understanding of potential risk with a desired design direction.
Wayland has experience in every building sector and a deep project portfolio of multifamily residential and hospitality projects. He has served as designer of apartments, condominiums, hotels, resorts, educational facilities, healthcare facilities, performing arts facilities, and governmental facilities. He has consulted on projects requiring environmental impact reports, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reports, and vibration assessment. Wayland and colleague John LoVerde are the first and only consultants in the U.S. to model, construct, and measure an in-ground wave barrier trench designed to mitigate ground-borne vibration transmission.
Samantha Rawlings
Samantha joined Westside Acoustics & Vibration Engineering in 2025 and brings eighteen years of experience as an acoustician, consultant, and project manager to the team. Samantha’s project portfolio is diverse, including projects from every major sector. Samantha has worked on educational, hospitality, housing, governmental, fitness, performing arts/music, commercial, and environmental projects.
Her personal philosophy is that her engineering responsibility to clients is to advise them both regarding what mitigation is needed and what mitigation is not needed. Balanced acoustical design is key in Samantha’s approach to client service.
Samantha holds a certificate in project management from UCLA’s Extension program, an unusual qualification within the acoustical community. Samantha undertook formal training in project management to facilitate successful project delivery to clients. She used these skills to transform traditional project and portfolio management practices. These efforts resulted in improved project tracking, improved task tracking, and better workload management, which facilitated the ability for project managers to be proactive.
Devin Wong
Devin joins Westside Acoustics after ten years as an acoustical consultant, preceded by his M.S. in Architectural Engineering from the University of Nebraska and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California. Like other Westside Acoustics staff, Devin has a broad experience base across building sectors, with extensive testing and building interior sound isolation experience. In addition, Devin has significant work in the entertainment and performing arts sectors, having recently completed sound stage projects and implemented ongoing compliance monitoring for outdoor entertainment venues. He also has extensive experience with fitness facilities with loud music and heavy weight impacts.
Katherine Spearing
Katherine keeps Westside running smoothly as its administrator. With background as executive of a non-profit prior to joining Westside, Katherine brings a wealth of experience to the team. Her creativity seems endless, as she produces a podcast and social media presence for the non-profit in addition to being a published author in both fiction and non-fiction genres. Katherine is based in St. Louis, Missouri.
Kevin Patterson
Kevin brings eight years of experience as an acoustical consultant to Westside Acoustics following his completion of his M.S. in Acoustics and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University. Kevin brings unique experience to the Westside staff, with an educational focus on vibration assessment and signal processing. He boasts a similarly wide project experience base as other Westside staff, having worked in each project sector. Along with John LoVerde, Kevin completed a series of projects with a major utility contractor, providing creative strategies for meeting property line noise standards, including re-siting buildings, adding barriers, utilizing alternate equipment, or applying sound attenuation materials. These projects were validated with post-construction measurements therefore the accuracy of the assessment and realized benefit is known. Kevin is based in Denver, Colorado.
Matthew Bridgeman
coming soon!
Sunit Girdhar
Following completion of his Ph.D. from Michigan Technological University, Sunit joins Westside Acoustics with approximately two years of experience in the architectural acoustics consulting field. Sunit’s thesis is in measurement of low-frequency sound levels in non-diffuse environments and reciprocity noise/vibration methods. Continuing this research can result in transformation of low-frequency sound level evaluation within the built environment, introducing a new generation of improved accuracy. Sunit brings deep analytical expertise to the Westside staff.
John Beckmeyer
coming soon!
Chris Grabow
Having recently completed his Master’s in Acoustics from Penn State, Chris joins Westside Acoustics. Chris has approximately two years’ experience in the field of architectural acoustics prior to starting his degree. While completing his Master’s, he both served as a teaching assistance in the Aerospace Technology Laboratory and completed a thesis investigating methods for percussive sound source separation. Chris has completed a variety of projects as a design professional, including measurements/commissioning, exterior noise assessments, room acoustics, and sound isolation design. Chris is based in Seattle, Washington.
Let’s Connect
Choosing Westside Acoustics means partnering with a leader in the field who values integrity and excellence. Contact us to discuss your needs.