Steve Hinds
First Baptist Dallas
Horner expansion
In 2013, Dallas-based Beck Architecture led the design of a major campus transformation at the renowned megachurch First Baptist Dallas. Recently, the firm designed an 80,400-square-foot, two-story addition that sits on top of the church’s existing five-story Horner Education Center, as well as a parking garage.
Originally designed to accommodate children and youth, the goal behind the Horner building expansion was to create a family education center. Whereas in the past, adults would drop their children off at the Horner building and then proceed to their own activities in various spaces across the campus, now everyone is united under one roof. Upon arrival, families enjoy the convenience of parking and attending Bible study all in the same place.
The biggest challenge for Greenwood and his team was figuring out how to support the addition structurally.
One very important design goal for this project was to provide a number of gathering spaces throughout the new addition, notes Tom Greenwood, AIA, principal at Beck. “This building was really built around facilitating small group and community experiences,” he explains. “There was a lot of thought put into lobby areas and gathering spaces outside of the classrooms where people could mingle and connect outside of class time. It’s really taking this idea of the community spaces that we’ve been building in worship centers––big lobbies, big gathering and connection areas––and reimagining them to fit within an education building.” He adds that this was of significant importance to First Baptist Dallas; as an urban church, the congregation––whose members are scattered throughout the city and the suburbs––may only gather together for a few hours once a week.
"It’s really taking this idea of the community spaces that we’ve been building in worship centers––big lobbies, big gathering and connection areas––and reimagining them to fit within an education building.”
Tom Greenwood, AIA, Principal, Beck, Dallas, TX
The biggest challenge for Greenwood and his team was figuring out how to support the addition structurally. The existing building houses a gymnasium on the fourth and fifth floors, adjacent to a youth space, and erecting support structure down through it wasn’t possible. “We couldn’t have big columns coming down through the middle of the gym, and so we had to span,” he relays. To achieve this, Beck specified a Vierendeel truss, which is rectangular instead of triangular (and often seen in bridge designs). It measures 180 feet long and 30 feet deep. “We actually built rooms within the truss that serve their programming needs, and it spans over the gym with no columns going down [into it], and it’s supported on the structure that was already there. Literally, the whole thing is floating above the existing building.”
AV design and delivery
Idibri, an acoustics, theatre planning, and technology design firm headquartered in Addison, Texas, designed the acoustics, audiovisual, and data security systems for the new addition. David Battershell, RCDD, CTS-D, senior consultant at the firm, explains that he and his team specified audio and video elements for the lobbies and gathering spaces, as well as AV packages including LED displays, sound reinforcement, and lighting––in essence, full performance systems––for two of the larger children’s auditoriums, as well as a smaller system for an adult theatre on the seventh floor. The children’s classrooms all feature televisions and audio systems, with several larger classrooms incorporating video projection technology. The adult classrooms are straightforward classrooms without any technology components.
Steve Hinds
First Baptist Dallas
Children's auditorium
Battershell says that from an acoustical perspective, the parking garage below the new addition was a main concern. “We had to make sure that when we’re in that building we do not hear cars vibrating,” he explains. There were also adjacent structures to consider, he adds, noting an office tower just across an alleyway. “We had to make sure that, one, the noise from [First Baptist Dallas’] mechanical units and AV systems were not bothering the neighbors, but also that the neighbors were not bothering us.” He says that he and his team worked closely with Beck and the structural engineer on structural elements, and the selection of window glazing, that would keep noise out.
Design sense + building materials
To communicate to First Baptist Dallas what the design would look like in real life, Beck used Revit BIM modeling software in conjunction with Enscape, provided animations of the Revit model. Greenwood explains that this helped church leadership convey their vision to the congregation during fundraising. “We can show people an image and really walk them through it as we’re designing it, and we can talk about the lighting and the different materials,” he says. “We could talk about security in the children’s areas: how many doors do we want people to go through? What does this feel like after you get off the elevator and walk [into the space]? We do virtual reality sometimes, but we think this is an even more efficient tool because we can show a lot of the materials.”
The children’s spaces are on the sixth floor, mandating the need to limit access points to keep kids safe. At the same time, Beck wanted to create a space that, while secure, would feel welcoming. A glass wall divides the general reception area from the secured children’s area, accessible via glass doors.
Glass is a primary material in this project, with large windows taking up the outer walls of the classroom spaces, while windows at the end of the hallways help to establish a connection with the rest of the campus––and the city of Dallas––outside. The lighting fixtures mounted flush into the ceiling illuminate the halls, reception, and gathering areas with a warm white that almost passes as natural light. “[We thought carefully] about how we did the lighting, and what colors we chose, so that it wouldn’t feel institutional,” Greenwood says. Wooden bookshelves and furnishings create warmth, as does a red brick feature wall, which is a nod to First Baptist Dallas’ original campus. “The old First Baptist Dallas buildings had this red brick, and we repurposed a lot of that brick when those buildings were demolished. The feature wall provides a change of material and a sense of warmth, and it connects to the heritage of the church, too.”
Steve Hinds
First Baptist Dallas
Horner expansion, interior
Greenwood notes that Beck does a lot of design work for higher education clients in the secular world, and that they, too, are seeking to build learning spaces that are more welcoming, less institutional, and that foster collaboration and community. He says that it only makes sense that churches like First Baptist Dallas have the same goals for their own educational facilities. “It’s not your grandparents’ Sunday school, or your parents’ Sunday school, or for people like me, the Sunday school I grew up in,” he says. “It’s something very different.”
