State Street Garage Expansion September 14, 2012

We are continuing to finalize the design for the State Street Garage and I hope to have some detail on scheduling in the very near future. We are planning to begin construction in October and there will be impacts both inside and outside the garage at that time including possible lane closures on both State Street and Central Avenue during daylight hours. We have discussed planning a Public Update Meeting which is tentatively scheduled now for Thursday, October 11, 2012 at the East Tennessee History Center at 5:00 pm. We will send out a press release and of course I will post here when we get that date and time verified.

I am including here two of the most recent renderings of the new addition. Please note that we plan to construct a new elevator core which will align with the overpass over to Gay Street and over the escalator which will be removed. This rendering also depicts the stairway to be constructed and shows one of the ideas for the area after the existing elevator core is removed.

Since I know many of you have an interest in the historical aspects of this area, I am attaching here a page from the Sanborn Map series which was created in the early part of the century for fire insurance purposes. The area of the State Street Garage here is labeled “Elks Home” along with other businesses.

Lastly, here is another picture given to me by my friends at Rentenbach Constructors Incorporated of the original garage construction in 1980.

Thanks for your interest in this project and in Downtown Knoxville.