An industrial complex at 2000 Sutherland Avenue will serve as the future home for the UT Facilities Services department.
Formerly the site of Southeast Precast Corporation, and before that the Gray Knox Marble Company, the property’s 91,000-square-foot plant structure will house offices, warehouse space, workshops, and labs.
Purchased by the university in spring 2013, the facility nearly doubles the department’s current space for operations.
Nearly 200 Facilities Services employees will move to the new facility once the renovation is complete. Following the move, the department’s current location will be dedicated to other university priorities.
The $18.7 million dollar project—which converts the old plant building from industrial use to business and warehouse use—will preserve the building’s volume while recalling its industrial character. The adjacent Gray Knox Marble Company office building will be renovated at a later date.
Originally built in the early twentieth century, the plant building’s heavy steel frame will receive a new façade. The central hall’s original forty-foot ceiling will remain, and overhead cranes will be kept as decommissioned artifacts.
Elements like an exterior silo, the steel structure, clerestory windows, concrete floors, and wooden decking will either be refinished in place, recreated, or selectively salvaged for use in other areas of the building.
The office portion of the bright central hall will contain a colorful and minimally partitioned furniture concept to foster collaboration between department employees who are currently dispersed.
The project is slated for completion in spring 2016.
For more information on campus construction projects, visit the Cone Zone.
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CONTACT:
Brooke Krempa (bsteve14@utk.edu)