AD Profile - Criswell Center at the First Baptist Church of Dallas

The Criswell Center combines the rich history of a ministry whose roots go back to 1868 with a hip urban renewal which meets the missional objectives of today.

The objective of the Criswell Center was to create a place for people to congregate in the everyday—serving both the church’s membership and the urban community surrounding them. The team at Churchworx of Houston, Texas worked with the leadership to outline the goals of the project and to provide oversight.

Designed by Good Fulton & Farrell, the Criswell Center complements the existing sanctuary and Truett Building while creating an open face to the city-at-large without comprising its relationship to the urban landscape. The interior spaces reflect tranquility through a warm color palette integrating soft wood tones. Small seating areas break up the large spaces and create a sense of place. Architecturally, the seven-story building mediates the remaining buildings, yet presents a more decidedly glassy and welcoming façade.

The 250,000-square-foot Criswell Center includes the CenterStage dinner theater capable of seating 900 to 1,200 for large concerts, receptions, and worship services. Other elements include two chapels, complete with adjoining bride and groom rooms, as well as three floors for education, administration offices and areas for future expansion. A system of escalators and four main elevators move people along the floors of the center.

The design of the performance technologies for the spaces centered on maximum connectivity and flexibility. Acoustic Dimensions provided the design of the acoustics, audio, video and lighting for the Criswell Center.

To achieve this connectivity, there was a substantial amount of conduit and specialized wiring needed for the audio/visual system. Brandt Electric who handled engineering and installation states that there are approximately 32 miles of conduit and 54 miles of AV wire installed.

Acoustic Dimensions designed the broadcast cabling to route through the future broadcast studio before connecting with the current facilities to ease the transition when the studios are expanded in the future.

Panels located throughout the facility in common areas allow small performances or video connection to occur almost anywhere.

CenterStage is a ministry venue offering a dinner theatre with a stage area to support concerts, drama, receptions, worship and community events and a servery with cuisine prepared in the state of the art kitchen.

The audio system is comprised of EAW KF761 line arrays in three clusters in a split mono system. The system was designed to be a high quality, high-power system capable of meeting the production requirements of national touring acts. The intent is that touring groups would be able to use the in-house speaker system and there is a 100 amp, 3-phase company switch to power touring stage monitor systems.

The front-of-house control booth is located at the back of the main audience floor on the centerline of the stage. The console is digital—a Yamaha PM1D. There are actually two PM1D engines. One is connected for the mix in-house; the other is connected to the existing broadcast studio. There are accommodations stage right for a monitor mix position. Digital signal processing is provided by multiple Yamaha DME64N processors. Audio connectivity between CenterStage, the chapel, and the existing worship center is via CobraNet over fiber.

There is a front projection system with left and right screens flanking the stage. The projectors are Christie DLP at 12,000 lumens each. The projectors are located in a soffit in the ceiling toward the rear of the room.

House lighting is a combination of florescent—for brightness—and incandescent for dimability. The combination allowed them to meet energy codes. The dimmer racks are located in an equipment room on the fourth floor above the actual space. They control both the architectural and theatrical systems to eliminate redundancy. There are accommodations for the addition of moving fixtures.

There are two pipes for theatrical fixtures located at front of house and three over the platform. Floor pockets and wall pockets are positioned throughout the venue to provide flexibility in the staging of events