St. Andrew United Methodist
Church
Plano, Texas
Seat Count: 1600
Project Type: New Construction
Opening: May 2003
Architect: HKS, Inc.
Organ Builder: Letourneau
AD Scope: Auditorium Design, Acoustics,
Audio, Video and Lighting
St. Andrew's UMC's main request for their new sanctuary was that it be traditional in look but cutting edge in technical capabilities. This meant that all the sound equipment, video and architectural lighting needed to be camouflaged from view. This is achieved by hiding the speakers behind fabric panels that are designed to blend with the walls. The lights are housed in openings in the architectural elements, so they are less noticeable. The lights also help to blend the video screens in with the rest of the room.
Another challenge for the design of the building was the desire to have an acoustically reverberant room that was suitable for a pipe organ, as well as have architectural treatments like a rose window and a sloped ceiling. The ceiling must continue the rectangle shape of the room to create acoustical reverbrance. This was done, but the ceiling was given the illusion of what the architect designed by suspending acoustically transparent fabric panels from the actual ceiling. Architecturally, the rose window was an important focal point; acoustically, it caused difficulties with the reverberation chamber for the organ. AD developed a solution to enclose the space behind the window so that the reverberation chamber was intact. This also provided the opportunity for architectural lighting behind the window so that in the evenings or on cloudy days, the stained glass can be illuminated.
The design relates more to a concert hall than a church. They needed a certain seat count, but to support the space acoustically and to maintain a traditional look, the room needed to be rectangle shaped. This shape causes site line problems. The solution was double balconies, which bring people in close to the platform.
The audio system is a mono system designed to support speech intelligibility. The space is highly reverberant to support the music, so the speakers needed to have strong pattern control so that audio would be directed into the seating area with no "splash" of sound energy onto the walls.
