project: Baha'i Faith Regional Center

location: Plano, Texas

architect: Hossein Amanat, Canada

Overview

The Baha'i Faith Regional Centre in Plano, Texas serves the community as a location for worship, learning, and fellowship activities. The Baha'i's believe that all of their facilities around the world are valuable assets to their local neighborhoods - and the Regional Centre in Plano is no exception. This facility is actually the first of five phases currently planned for the overall building.

Design Charge

Encore Design Group was charged with the facility's acoustics, sound, and video distribution designs. Our design effort required the design of system that can migrate or become a part of a much larger system once the remainder of the centre's phases are complete.

Technical Systems

The first phase of the centre includes a foyer, various offices and conference room, and a worship hall. Once the next phase of the project is complete, the current worship hall will become a wing of a much larger worship hall. Our design allows for the use of the current sound and video systems in the worship hall to become sub-systems of a much larger sound and video systems within the larger sanctuary. As part of the design, the Foyer was also provided its own sound system to be used for receptions and special events. Close attention was paid to both the worship hall (as it will need to function as a wing of the future worship hall) and the foyer as it will host various events.

Acoustics

With large foyers and coorridors to be used for various lectures, receptions, and other events, the tall, spanning domes occuring within these areas had to be addressed acoustically to allow for intelligible spaces. The main sanctuary room also needed to have special attention given to acoustics due to expansive sections of exterior glass.