project: Emmanuel Recital Hall

owner: Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church

location: Dallas, Texas

architect: Milton Powell & Partners

Overview

Emmanuel Hall is part of the latest renovations and additions to the original Preston Hollow Presbyterian church. Emmanuel Hall serves as a hall for recitals, lectures, and choir rehearsals. The 180 seat hall features a hardwood stage as its focal point with steeply raked seating.

Design Charge

Encore Design Group provided stage lighting system, architectural lighting, video projection system, and control booth design. The desire of the architect and owner was to have a hall that had a formal finish, minimizing the visibility of the technical systems.

Space Planning

Space planning services included layout for the control booth to ensure that the booth would suit the needs of the technical systems and their respective technicians. Also provided were sightline studies to achieve a balance between architecture, audience's sight to the stage, and proper alignment of the video projection system within the space.

Performance Lighting

Both front and side lighting positions were designed for the hall. As our charge was to keep technical systems' visibility to a minimum, lighting "slots" were designed to house and hide the stage lighting equipment. Downlighting for the stage is provided through special architectural lighting in the ceiling over the stage area.

Architectural Lighting

Architectural lighting design in this hall consisted of general audience lighting, special dimmable fluorescent cove wall wash lights at the stage, and stair lighting. The architectural lighting is fully controllable to allow for the various hall functions. The room may be significantly bright for lectures and choir rehearsals, and intimately dim for recitals and video presentations.

Video Projection

The video projection system includes a high-power video projector and an electronically controlled video projection screen. The screen is stored within a custom cove above the ceiling line. When the screen is needed, it can be electronically lowered into place.