MLK Jr. Avenue Charette Concludes!

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Our 2022 Community Collaborative Charrette wrapped up this week and, while we are still in the middle of organizing the submissions into our booklet on the subject which will be released later in the year, we wanted to give you a preview of the designs to hold you over until then.  The charrette focused on a parcel of land along Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in East Knoxville, and the participating teams were told to take into account existing zoning codes as well as the results of a community input survey from last Summer; otherwise, they were free to imagine the possibilites.

The image above is from Barber McMurry Architects (BMA) and shows their vision for a community center on the corner of MLK and Ben Hur Avenues.

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This version of the charrette saw two cooperative teams join in, and the above design is from one of them. Combining their collective design skills, architecture firm Benefield Richters partnered with landscape architects and urban planners Ross/Fowler to create this concept, which features mixed-use buildings and large plaza space, including a water feature.

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Our second partnership combined the brain power of Johnson Architecture with IBI Placemaking, who created this new area for townhomes and apartments, complete with pedestrian paths meandering between them and through this lovely ovular green.

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Our final design comes from McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects (MHM), who took the site and created and mix of uses including what you see here, which shows a community center and pavilion on the left with apartments above and to the right, bisected by a large pathway that runs under the building toward MLK.

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We want to thank all of the firms that were involved in this charrette for their willingness to dream big and propose potential ways to make this part of town (seen in the above image, colorized) something new and beneficial to the entire community. We are excited to move to the next phase of our work with MLK Jr. Avenue in creating our Vision Plan, and we will be even more excited to share that with you, as well as all of these charrette projects in detail, later in 2022!