On 3-Jul-2005, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:

I was
getting an occasional complaint from one neighbor across the way, who
would leave her windows open and get too much noise. It's been my
experience the buildings actually amplify noise.

I doubt that they actually amplify the noise but certainly buildings serve
as excellent waveguides for some acoustic frequencies. Although thinking
about it now you could get spots where you get constructive interference of
the acoustic transmission multipaths which could make that spot much louder
than it intuitively would be. It's the principle of the whisper room in the
capitol building in DC.

That's only going to occur in certain spots though and only in the presence
of fairly smooth acoustic reflectors.

ml