Dallas Baptist University, Henry Blackaby Hall

Dallas, Texas

Firm

BMA Architects

Client

Dallas Baptist University

Area

18,300 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$4,000,000

Completion Date

09/2008

The student bookstore for Dallas Baptist University had been housed in various facilities on campus for many years. One of the most recent locations was in the lower level of the Independence Hall-inspired Mahler Student Center, constructed in 1989. However, the university administration long had believed that an operation as prominent and important as providing student textbooks and study materials, as well as promotional products for the university, deserved a freestanding and prominent home of its own.

In keeping with the general campus theme of colonial architecture, and specifically taking inspiration from the lesser-known north, or "front," elevation of Independence Hall, Henry Blackaby Hall was constructed as a companion building to the Mahler Student Center. Blackaby Hall houses the campus bookstore, as well as classrooms, offices and practice spaces serving the campus music department, and offices for the university’s online education department.

The bookstore occupies the main level of the building and has two primary entrances, serving pedestrian student traffic as well as patrons arriving by vehicle. The lower level of Blackaby Hall contains faculty offices and music practice modules, and the upper level contains music classrooms, additional faculty offices, and the Department of Online Education.