Clair Solutions
Watermark Church Fort Worth, Texas
With more than 11,000 congregants attending each week, Dallas-based Watermark Community Church, founded by Senior Pastor Todd Wagner, is one of the 50 largest churches in the U.S. As the demand for its services grew, Watermark set out to create satellite campuses in Plano, Frisco and Fort Worth, to expand its reach.
Calling on the same team involved in the original Dallas church a decade earlier, for its Fort Worth satellite, Watermark enlisted the services of Omniplan, a local architectural firm, to handle the design; Idibri, an Addison, Texas-based consultancy to handle acoustics, theatrical design, and audio, video, and lighting; and Clair Solutions, a Dallas-based firm to handle AVL design and integration.
“They bought an old Church of Christ facility in Fort Worth and did a full gut rehab, down to bare walls, but it was still more challenging than new construction because we had to work within the constraints of the existing layout to realize their vision.” Mike Mason, Regional Manager, Clair Solutions, Dallas, TX
“They bought an old Church of Christ facility in Fort Worth and did a full gut rehab, down to bare walls, but it was still more challenging than new construction because we had to work within the constraints of the existing layout to realize their vision,” says Mike Mason, regional manager at Clair Solutions. “We helped decide issues of infrastructure: where should lines run? How should we get signal from point A to point B? How should we physically install things?”
Beyond issues of infrastructure, Clair Solutions leveraged its relationships with manufacturers to help Idibri specify the AVL equipment so it could get price breaks that helped Watermark get the best value for its dollar.
Design intent
Meredith Quigley Rooker, AIA, senior associate for Omniplan, says the goals for the project were threefold: to bring the foundational material palette to the new site and to make it feel like the main campus, to renovate the existing building in a way that would lend itself to the unique programmatic needs of Watermark, and to be good stewards of the church body’s money.
"... to try to recapture some of the things that make Watermark unique among churches, we increased the traditional lobby space as much as we could without impeding the capacity of the worship center.” Meredith Quigley Rooker, AIA, Senior Associate, Omniplan, Dallas, TX
“Because we were moving into a building that used to be a church, it was always going to feel like a more traditional church environment than the Dallas Campus,” she says. “In order to try to recapture some of the things that make Watermark unique among churches, we increased the traditional lobby space as much as we could without impeding the capacity of the worship center.”
To do this, Omniplan incorporated some of the same finishes and some updated finishes.
Watermark Fort Worth's children's ministry. Image by Matthew King.
“Watermark is always growing and progressing who they are and how their facilities reflect that,” Rooker says. “We brought in some strategies that support the programs needs of the church for example, we oversized the circulation spaces at the Dallas campus to provide easy circulation for families but also comfortable areas to stop and have conversations.”
In the existing building the church purchased in Fort Worth, all the circulation spaces were narrow even for a building of that age and so Omniplan widened them about three feet without compromising programmatic area.
“We also removed pews from the sanctuary and flattened the sloped floor in that space to create a more flexible worship center that would support the church’s programming more effectively,” Rooker says. “We created as much warmth in that area as possible, providing places for people to sit, gather, find community and relax.”
Directly adjacent to this expanded lobby, they created a new outdoor area, complete with outdoor furniture, landscaping, and fans and canopies to provide some relief from the sometimes harsh temperatures.
AVL specification
Handling the AVL for the project was Robert Rose, LEED AP, senior consultant for Idibri, who was also the project manager for the Dallas campus and has been working with Watermark for more than a decade.
“The project was a renovation so initial discussions started with how do we modify the space to work for Watermark Fort Worth. The room was physically large enough, but the platform wasn’t,” he says. “Our first challenge was to develop several platform layouts, using their instrumentation and our recommended screen locations, to relay to the design team how much larger the platform needed to be.”
“Our first challenge was to develop several platform layouts, using their instrumentation and our recommended screen locations.... " Robert Rose, LEED AP, Senior Consultant, Idibri, Addison, TX
Omniplan suggested leveling out the floor so that it was flat, which involved filling in the slope sanctuary floor so ultimately, it resulted in several feet of lost interior height.
“From a technology standpoint, we wrestled with budget and quality expectations, which are common for every church we work with,” Rose says. “Watermark has established a level of quality and our goal was to ensure that this campus was no different. Once everyone was on board with the budget, it was fairly straightforward to work through the systems designs.”
Idibri originally debated the pros and cons of LED versus projection and Rose explains pixelization was a concern for the technical team at Watermark since the room isn’t that large and the front rows are close to the screens.
“The center screen acts as a virtual pastor feed from the main campus, so resolving details was a high priority,” he says. “We were concerned about projection getting washed out because the center screen is being used as a backdrop on the shallow stage. Ultimately the brightness and clarity of the LED screens won out.”
This was reinforced by visiting another local installation and viewing screens of similar size and pixel pitch to get comfortable with viewing distances. Idibri then worked closely with Clair and the structural engineer to ensure the existing glulam beams could support the weight of the screens and were able to get trussing in the right location to make everything work.
The Church has had L-Acoustics speaker systems at the Dallas campus for 12 years and Idibri decided this was the right solution for Fort Worth as well.
“We designed a very straightforward Left-Right system using the Kiva II products,” Rose says. “The wide coverage helped minimize the need for additional fill speakers. Subwoofers were flown and stacked under the stage to provide a good blend of coverage, impact and extension.”
The lighting system needed to enhance the church’s dynamic worship experience so the company went with color changing LED front and backlight specified from ETC, and movers from Elation. This package offers a high level of performance at a reasonable price. Lighting control was handled by a Chroma-Q Vista console.
Matching matters
The Fort Worth campus was a renovation of an existing church that had very different architectural, acoustical, and technology priorities so it was very different from the main campus, which was purpos- built. To help stay consistent with the Dallas church, exterior signage as well as interior signage were matched in material, design, messaging and branding.
“The entire team (Watermark, Clair Brothers, Omniplan, and Idibri) [has] been working together for more than 12 years and that history results in a level of trust and candor. Egos are left at the door and solutions are vetted until everyone [is] comfortable with the final direction." Robert Rose, LEED AP, Senior Consultant, Idibri, Addison, TX
Of course all involved tried to standardize equipment and systems across their campuses as much as possible, but that is not always possible given when facilities come on line.
“The entire team (Watermark, Clair Brothers, Omniplan, and Idibri) [has] been working together for more than 12 years and that history results in a level of trust and candor that makes navigating the challenges of a major renovation with moving budgets possible,” Rose says. “Egos are left at the door and solutions are vetted until everyone [is] comfortable with the final direction.”
