Project Updates: November 2022

Representatives for the Cavett Station Historic Cemetery meet with volunteer Elizabeth Ellis, AIA, and ETCDC Design Studio Project Coordinator Perry Childress (behind the camera) to discuss next steps for the project in early November 2022.

It may be the season to sit back, relax, eat turkey and watch football, but here at the Design Center we are going full steam ahead with several projects. Below are updates to some of them.

  • SEEED: the energy-efficiency-focused nonprofit is working with us and volunteer architect Don Horton, AIA, to develop a new multistory mixed-use office building on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in Knoxville. Don has taken several site visits with the clients and is in the beginning stages of the first draft design now. The goal is to achieve LEED Platinum status with the design, which is the most environmentally friendly certification a building can attain.
The potential future location of SEEED offices and mixed-use building on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue.
  • Family Promise: after visiting the site in October, volunteer architect Adam Buchanan, AIA, has developed an initial design and will be meeting with ETCDC Staff this month to review it before having a first review with the clients. Family Promise is hoping to redevelop their existing office space and add additional housing to their current site. Their mission is to temporarily house families on the verge of homelessness.
Volunteer Adam Buchanan, AIA, and Family Promise representative John Mark Brown meet with ETCDC Staff at the Family Promise facility on Middlebrook Pike in Knoxville in early October.
  • Vestal UMC Foster Care: ETCDC Staff and volunteer Josh Shaffer, AIA, have met with representatives for this project at the site and have started preliminary designs to turn the church’s old educational wing into housing for young women that have recently aged-out of the foster care system. Existing building analyses have also taken place.
The old educational wing – seen on the left – of the Vestal United Methodist Church in Knoxville is being designed to become housing.
  • Good Shepherd Center: our volunteer, architect Susanne Tarovella, AIA, and ETCDC Staff are in the early stages of developing a design that would allow this food pantry in Madisonville to expand their community reach with an additional building and restructured interior layout.
Good Shepherd Center in Madisonville in July of this year.
  • Visit Knoxville’s Sunsphere Welcome Center: first-time volunteer Emanuel Huber-Feely, AIA, and ETCDC Staff met with V.K. President Kim Bumpas last month to discuss a potential Sunsphere Welcome Center located on the iconic structure’s 3rd floor. Emanuel has created a first-draft design and will meet again with Kim Bumpas and ETCDC Staff this week to review the concept.
Volunteer Emanuel Huber-Feely, AIA, meets with Visit Knoxville President Kim Bumpas and ETCDC Staff in October to discuss the new Sunsphere Welcome Center.
  • Union County Heritage Park: this large park in Union County, located beside the high school, will include several elements, including a music stage, farmers market pavilion, food truck area, and wall of fame to honor several famous country music musicians from the area. Volunteers Oren Yarbrough, AIA, and Randy Merritt of Christman Construction, along with ETCDC Staff, met with the clients in October to discuss the vision for the park and visited the site earlier this week. The first-draft design for the park should be coming soon.
The future location of Heritage Park in Union County. Union County High School can be seen in the background.
  • Cavett Station Cemetery: this historic cemetery in west Knoxville is undergoing a design to restore it and make it more publicly accessible for visitation. Seen in the first image at the top, the cemetery is currently being marked for potential old graves so that an appropriate design can be developed by project volunteer Elizabeth Ellis, AIA.