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by Joe Sullivan

Of all of Knoxville’s downtown streets, the most moribund is State Street. The Elk’s Club that was once a hub of the city’s social life, the Union Terminal that was its prime bus depot, the Palace Hotel and Reeder Chevrolet are all long gone. In their stead are mostly parking lots and garages. Since the News Sentinel abandoned its block last year, the only remaining landmark of note is First Presbyterian Church.

But, lo and behold, State Street is about to be transformed. From Cumberland Avenue on the south to Summit Hill Drive on the north, monumental new developments are on the drawing board that will provide a modernistic complement to the historic buildings that remain the hallmark of adjacent Gay Street. Consider:

On the former News Sentinel site, County Mayor Mike Ragsdale is planning a new downtown public library on which work is due to begin within a year. The $45 million (or thereabouts) library will have main entrances on both State and Gay. And just across State from the library, the county is due to build a 500-space garage that won’t look anything like the drab parking decks that line the street today. Instead, the new garage will be cloaked at ground level with a retail wrap, adhering to good urban design principles.

To the north, the city is pointing toward construction of a new transit center on the elongated swath of property that Knox County acquired and cleared several years ago for a thankfully aborted jail. County Commission is due to act today (Thursday) on Ragsdale’s recommendation to deed the property to the city in exchange for air rights atop the new facility. And use of these air rights holds promise of making it much more than just a central bus station, as important as that is. Sketches prepared for Knox County by architects Bullock Smith envision a new Discovery Center, an IMAX theater and three residential towers supported by the transit center’s foundations. A 400- to 600-space garage is also included in the complex, along with retail space and perhaps a child-care center.

The complex would have a Gay Street front, fittingly in the hole left when the Union terminal was demolished, linked to State Street’s lower elevation via a pedestrian bridge over the existing Promenade Garage. Filling the hole will mean acquiring the Gay Street frontage property, but city officials believe it’s worth the added cost. “A nice facility embedded in that location could be a catalyst for more bus ridership, and we want to encourage that,” says city director of economic development Bill Lyons.

Before committing to the transit center site, Lyons envisions what he terms an interactive public meeting to present the case for it. Plans will then be submitted to the Federal Transportation Administration, on which the city is counting for federal funding for the project. Congress has already authorized $17 million, but it now appears that as much as $25 million could be required for the facility, including Gay Street property acquisition, the bridge and a shell for the Discovery Center whose interior exhibitry would be funded largely by private contributions. “Assuming we can justify it, we think there’s a good basis for believing we can get more [federal funding],” Lyons says.

The residential component of the complex would be privately developed, perhaps involving UT. Ragsdale has been talking with university officials about locating married student housing on the State Street site and hopes to enlist the support of UT’s new president John Petersen.

Something else that’s needed to complete State Street’s facelift is streetscaping and wider sidewalks. An urban design framework prepared as part of the Nine Counties. One Vision process by consultants Crandall Arambula proposes making it a tree-lined, pedestrian-friendly boulevard, and there is a lot to recommend that. Along with enhancing the new library and transit center blocks, it would add to the appeal of the block on which the State Street Garage will be supporting the city’s planned new downtown cineplex just to the west on Gay Street.

Beyond that, it would be wonderful if State Street’s revitalization could include restoration of an eyesore: the dilapidated, five-story building across the street from the transit center site. The building, which is now used to some extent for storage by adjacent Bacon and Co., was built in the 1890’s as a clothing factory by the city’s most illustrious black entrepreneur of that era, Cal Johnson. Bacon and Co. owner Jack Dance had planned to tear the building down, but acceded to a preservationist appeal from former mayor Victor Ashe to keep it standing. Developers of other downtown loft apartments believe the building would lend itself to residential restoration, and it would also serve as a memorial to Johnson.

Crandall Arambula’s grand design also envisions an ornate plaza at the point where State Street and Summit Hill Drive converge just east of Gay Street. But that expensive nicety may have to wait, and the Cradle of Country Music statue and commemorative plaques around its base grace that median nicely enough for now.

Instead of being a drag on the rest of downtown, State Street may become a catalyst for suffusing it with more vitality. Mayors Ragsdale and Bill Haslam are to be commended for the collaborative way in which they are pursuing State Street development.

June 10, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 24 © 2004 Metro Pulse