It sounded the way it sounds when Hollywood stages Armageddon. And anyone in downtown Dallas who wasn’t aware of what was really happening that morning might have thought that’s what it was. Then there was the dust, a menacing, lingering cloud of it, blocking out an otherwise bright, sunny sky. When it finally began to lift, underneath was all that debris. Four once-tallish buildings were much less than a story high. In fact, if it weren’t for the mounds of glass and concrete and metal and wood blanketing the ground, you could say that they were completely flat.The mess was intentional, and not a mess at all when you consider how carefully calculated and planned out and contingency-planned it was. The implosion of those four buildings was the end of something, yes, but for those who once inhabited them it was also the creation of a new beginning—one that would honor their past and take them into the future.
"You must have a plan implemented and maps drawn, and issue this information so the church knows and the school knows when you’re going to be shutting down roads…. ”
—SCOTT BLASING, Vice President of Pre-Construction, Manhattan Construction Co., Dallas.
Master planning on a grand scale
It was Saturday, October 30, 2010, when the First Baptist Church of Dallas treated the city center to that impressive sonic boom, but the conceptualization of its future home started several years before. For most of its 145-year history, the church congregated on this site, which over the years grew to span six city blocks and eight buildings, including its sanctuary. But those buildings—some constructed by the church, some purchased—were old, imposing, uninviting, and well, a little mismatched. Dr. Jeffress, the church’s senior pastor, wanted to create a “spiritual oasis” that would not only serve its existing inhabitants, but that would also invite the community in.
“We wanted to create a unified facility that was, first of all, visitor friendly, and also that showed the city the vitality of the church,” Jeffress recounts. This is the reason behind the extensive use of glass throughout the new campus, enabling an exchange between the interior and exterior: whereas before it was impossible for the public to know what was going inside FBC Dallas, now they have a front-row view as they are passing by, or lounging in the one-acre green space that the church built, or taking photos of the fountain out front. (A word about the fountain: it’s not just any fountain, and has fast become a landmark meeting spot in the city. Featuring a cross tower and separate baptism pool, its pedestal stands 68-feet high to the top of the cross. Every 15 minutes, passersby may enjoy a water “show,” complete with originally scripted music.) The creation of a new campus didn’t mean that First Baptist Dallas had any intention of leaving downtown and heading for the suburbs. “We have a 145-year history of being in downtown Dallas, and we believe that downtown is certainly one of, if not the, fastest-growing metropolis in the United States,” Jeffress explains. “We believe that there needs to be a strong witness for Christ in the center of the city.”
Architectural intricacies
The resulting design, led by The Beck Group, a locally based architectural firm, called for the aforementioned implosion of the Burt, Christian Education, Ruth Ray Hunt and Veal buildings, as well as the dismantling of the Truett and Mary C. buildings, which were attached to the original sanctuary. That sanctuary, as well as the Criswell Center, remain intact.
Out of all this, a new 500,000-square-foot campus was born, boasting a 3,000-seat worship center directly adjacent to the old sanctuary and, across the street, the Horner Family Center, a five-story structure that houses a gymnasium, a theater for youth, and an indoor playground for youngsters. Connected to this is the new Horner Parking Garage.
Tom Greenwood, principal at The Beck Group, notes that the master planning for FBC Dallas had to consider not only its own site, but what goes on around it—especially since Dallas itself is undergoing a significant facelift.
“There was thought to the City of Dallas and what they were trying to achieve downtown, in terms of some of the parks and other things that were being developed, and how the public would move through that,” he says.
Deborah Sweeney, president of Anchor Pointe, an owner’s representation firm in Plano, Texas, is the liaison between the church and all of its contractors. She reports that aside from the obvious challenge of coordinating large trucks carrying heavy construction equipment in a downtown setting with limited space and paying attention to the needs and concerns of those in neighboring facilities, ensuring that the project remained on schedule required a sort of militancy—especially since, as with any construction effort, not everything is under one’s control. “In downtown Dallas—and in any city—working with city authorities is sometimes very challenging,” she says. “The City of Dallas has really cut back on their staff, and so getting the answers that you need takes a lot longer.” Scheduling in enough margin to allow for these types of delays is crucial, she adds.
One of the issues that FBC Dallas struggled with for years was the disconnect between its multiple buildings: moving large groups of people across the street was not only challenging, but could be dangerous, especially when dealing with children. Greenwood explains the The Beck Group conducted the master planning three dimensionally to address this and other problems. “We did multiple scenarios with the church and asked ourselves: How do we stack? Program? How do the different floor levels interrelate to each other for the different ministries?” After much deliberation with city officials, the church and its architects succeeded in creating an expansive glass-enclosed concourse, featuring a sky bridge that links the worship center to the Horner Family Center.
It was also during the master planning stage that the church’s level of “greenness” was established and, as of press time, FBC Dallas was about to receive LEED Silver status from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) based in Washington, D.C. John Paul DeFrank, principal for The Beck Group, points out that the four LEED energy credits the church received from USGBC are largely the result of the buildings’ orientation: the main entrance, for example, is north-facing and receives no direct sunlight, enabling the facades to be primarily made of glass. “We were able to maximize the light transmittance coming into the building and do so without it heating up the lobby and creating mechanical issues,” he relays. “That’s where you have the greatest ability to impact the mechanical design, is through orientation.” The firm utilized energy modeling during the design phase to study all of the facades in an effort to make the greatest use of daylighting while still minimizing the impact they would have on energy consumption.
Honoring history, forging the future
Elements of the dismantled buildings have reappeared throughout the facility, and 94% of the construction waste was diverted from a landfill, according to Scott Blasing, vice president of pre-construction at Manhattan Construction Co., which for this project was selected as Construction Manager at Risk. He notes that one of the major challenges his team faced was that they were working on an active campus. “When you’re working for churches you have to understand when their functions are, and understand their campus operations,” he says. “You have to have a plan implemented and maps drawn, and issue this information so the church knows and the school knows when you’re going to be shutting down roads. You also have to be sensitive as to when they are holding major events.”
Located on the second floor, FBC Dallas’ new worship center features fan-shaped, sloped floor seating and a balcony, and is equipped with a sizable technology package that accommodates not only its weekly services for its congregants, but also Pathway to Victory, which is broadcast to over 1,200 television stations and dozens of radio stations across the country. The focal point of this facility is the 150-foot-wide seamless video screen, supported by seven edge-blended Barco projectors stationed behind the choir space. “The projectors are correcting for the shape and what we call the warp of the screen,” explains Ben Cating, senior consultant at Idibri in Addison, Texas, the company that designed the audiovisual and lighting systems for the worship center, as well as those throughout the campus. “It’s a curved surface, so you have to geometrically correct the image, as well as blend all of the images together to make that one seamless image.”As part of the lighting package, Idibri worked closely with The Beck Group on the design of ambiance lighting that enables the church’s technical staff to, in essence, use the sidewalls as a canvas to alter the mood and feel of the room depending on what they wish to achieve. This is done through the application of five large, tiered bands of color-changing LEDs that wrap around the space.
“As the room started to develop and shape itself, it told you how it wanted to be lit, in a way,” muses Jason Foster, senior consultant at Idibri. Outside, the worship center is crowned with stainless steel tiles that give the illusion that they are changing color as the light changes around them. DeFrank likens them to “modern” stained glass. “It’s raw stainless steel that they treat with chemicals that vary the level of oxidation on the face of the panel,” he explains. “Because they are unfinished, they will last forever. There is something very powerful about that kind of statement: the permanence of the church, and the permanence of the materials.”
[Editor's note: This story was originally published in Church Designer magazine in 2018.]
