New Buildings in Knoxville Help Modernize Campus
Residence Hall
In just a year, UT Knoxville students will call the Fred D. Brown Residence Hall their new home away from home. The new 250,000-square-foot facility will offer green and modern living at its best. As many as 700 men and women will enjoy the suite-style rooms, two eateries, an art gallery, workout facility, recreation room Internet and media lounges, study alcoves and multi-purpose meeting spaces, and a ground-floor atrium and courtyard. Encompassing two full blocks along Andy Holt Avenue, the hall is named for Brown, who founded the College of Engineering’s Minority Engineering Scholarship Program. To take a virtual tour, visit www.uthousing.utk.edu/construction/construction.
With a new building completed and equipped with the world’s best pianos, there’s a new song playing for UT’s School of Music. The Natalie L. Haslam Center opened its doors to students this fall. Engineered for musicians from the ground up, the four-floor, 123,000-square-foot building houses new and improved performance studios; eight technology-enhanced classrooms; rehearsal rooms for band, orchestra, chorus and chamber music; a computer lab; the new music library; and a 400-seat recital hall. The new center replaces a facility that was constructed in 1964 to accommodate 100 students. The School of Music now serves 400 students. The building represents the first time all School of Music programs, faculty and staff are under one roof.
Along with a new building, the School of Music is celebrating one other accomplishment: receiving All-Steinway School distinction—an international mark of music excellence signaling that at least 90 percent of an institution’s pianos are Steinway-designed.
The new Student Union is beginning to take shape. Phase one of the construction consists of five stories that will house the book and technology stores, campus dining and career services. Concrete walls and floors are forming the shell of the structure. The lowest level’s walls and floor are done, and work is continuing upward, a floor at a time. This first phase of the new Student Union is expected to be completed in fall 2014 or early 2015. The next phase of construction will include additional dining areas, the auditorium and ballroom, student recreation area, lounges and meeting space. It also will extend the building’s footprint westward toward Volunteer Boulevard. The new Student Union, which will be at least 50 percent larger than the University Center was, should be completed some time in 2017.
Inside the new John D. Tickle Building is a high-bay area with a strong wall and floor to test the strength and durability of structures. This is just one example of the hands-on learning experiences students are receiving inside the new engineering building. The $23 million, five-story, 110,000-square-foot building is named for Tickle, president and owner of Strongwell Corp. and a 1965 alumnus of the college. It houses the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department. The building contains 24 laboratories, three conventional classrooms, one lecture hall, three student work spaces, and 63 faculty and graduate student offices. The project marks the second new engineering facility to open in just two years, providing a needed boost for the fast-growing college.
Reporting by Karen Simsen, Amy Blakely, Lola Alapo and Whitney Heins