Because it’s an urban site, building adequate parking space would normally be a challenge, however, Watermark addressed this through reciprocal agreements with its commercial neighbors: on Sundays, and during special events, the church has access to its neighbors’ parking, and their neighbors’ patrons may park at Watermark when necessary. ![]() “It was a little bit of a risk-they didn’t quite know what a church would look like in an eight-story office building.” Once the firm began programming the spaces, however, it proved that utilizing the existing building would, indeed, work very well. “We started studying the value, the virtues, and the stewardship of doing that and proved that you could get a lot more bang for your buck if you kept that structure and allocated program space that could go into a tower,” he explains. But Scott Hall, AIA, principal and director of design at Omniplan, recounts that it was during master planning that this decision was reversed. Watermark’s newly purchased site housed an eight-story, 150,000-square-foot office tower that the church originally believed it would tear down in favor of building entirely new facilities from the ground up. The design of the master plan and the architecture was a collaborative effort between the church itself, the architect, and the AVL team. Thus began a three-phase design and construction effort that would produce two auditoriums, a chapel, youth and children’s facilities, a multipurpose space, numerous classrooms, and a multitude of gathering spaces. Over the course of more than 10 years, Watermark’s leadership worked with Omniplan, a local architectural firm, as well as Idibri, an Addison, Texas-based consultancy focusing on acoustics, theatrical design, and audio, video, and lighting, to bring this project to fruition. The church’s continued growth mandated the need for a permanent home, which in 2003, Watermark’s leadership found in the form of a 13-acre plot of land next to Interstate 635 in Dallas. Copper has an infinitely recyclable life making it highly reusable for future generations.For their first six years together, the members of Watermark Community Church gathered first in each other’s living rooms, and then, as membership grew, in hotel ballrooms and high school auditoriums. The prominent use of copper as both an interior and exterior material has a high recycled content. Additionally, the exterior and interior materials lean into the idea of material reuse and recycled content. The project focuses on water efficiency with drought-resistant and regionally appropriate landscaping, as well as high-efficiency plumbing fixtures. ![]() The project takes advantage of its location to encourage the use of alternative transportation with the proximity to the DART light rail and bus lines, the utilization of bike racks, and the provisions for low-Emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles. The wings of U-shaped parti shields the large curtain wall opening to the courtyard from the sun while the west wing overhangs the entry curtain wall limiting the effects of the western sun exposure. The design of the building seeks to limit the amount of direct sun light on the large expanses of glass. ![]() This project is located in the West End Historic District, formerly an industrial site adjacent to a former rail line. The Museum was designed with the goal of being a LEED Certified. With its exterior clad in copper, which will acquire a natural patina over time, the DHHRM will become an architectural legacy distinct and impactful. The siting responds to a series of considerations – creating vibrant open urban space, allowing sunlight to reach the museum, and responding to view corridors from icons and landmarks nearby. ![]() The architecture is essentially reflective of this notion of a journey – expressive of movement from arrival to departure, designed to provide an intuitive path for all visitors so that the focus is on the experience that is removed from everyday distractions. The overall building design amplifies the museum’s narrative by leading visitors through a physically changing path with a series of highly experiential spaces that allow the visitors to fully absorb the exhibits.
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