Several UT Knoxville facilities are being renamed as they transition to new uses. All of the names approved will honor families or individuals who have made a significant contribution to the university and its history. One of the names marks a first in UT history.

Fred D. Brown

The new Fred D. Brown Residence Hall is the first building on the UT Knoxville campus to be named for an African-American person.

“We are proud that we can carry on the legacy of these individuals who have contributed to UT’s rich diversity and inspiring history,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek.

Approved by the board were proposals to name:

• The new residence hall currently under construction on Andy Holt Avenue to the Fred D. Brown Jr. Residence Hall in honor of the longtime staff member who created the Office of Diversity Programs in the College of Engineering. The construction project is the first new residence hall to be built in forty-three years, and the hall will accommodate 700 men and women when it opens in 2014.

Now in its fortieth year, the Office of Diversity programs has recruited and supported more than 900 students from underrepresented groups who have graduated from the college. Brown founded it with just seventeen students, and his work has had a significant impact on the engineering profession.

Brown with students Robert Phillips and Marily Horhn in September 1973.

Brown graduated from Hall High School in Alcoa, Tennessee, and earned his college degree from the Tuskegee Institute. He did post-graduate work at UT, Tennessee State University, Fisk University, and Vanderbilt University. He taught at Hall High School in Alcoa and Oak Ridge High School. He was the first African-American teacher at Oak Ridge High soon after it was integrated and became the first African-American member of the Alcoa Board of Education.

• The former Student Health Center, 1818 Andy Holt Way, to Temple Hall in honor of Oliver P. Temple and his daughter, Mary Boyce Temple. The new Student Health Building opened last year on Volunteer Boulevard. The former health center is currently being renovated for College of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences programs.

Two previous buildings and a street have been named for the Temples throughout UT history. Temple Hall once served as an assembly center on the Agriculture Campus but no longer exists. The main route through campus, Temple Avenue, was renamed Volunteer Boulevard. Temple Court, which housed Career Services on the corner of Cumberland and Volunteer Boulevard, was razed in late 2012 to make room for a larger Student Union now under construction.

Oliver Temple was a trustee of East Tennessee University, which was later named the University of Tennessee, from 1820 until his death in 1907. He was a Greenville, Tennessee, lawyer and once ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Andrew Johnson. He was a driving force in expanding UT’s agriculture programs and its land grant designation.

Mary Boyce Temple continued her father’s work by establishing a foundation in 1919 to purchase and breed purebred animals and improve plant breeding. She later gave her library to UT.

• The new football practice facility the Anderson Training Center in honor of the Anderson families of Knoxville and Florence, Alabama. The families’ generosity helped to make the new state-of-the-art facility a reality. This 145,000-square-foot building includes an amphitheater-style team room, coaches’ offices, position meeting rooms, a first-class dining facility, players’ lounge, a 7,000-square-foot locker room, and a 22,000 square-foot multilevel weight room, as well as a new training room and hydrotherapy area. The Anderson Training Center will be central to the physical training and development of all Tennessee athletic teams.

The board also approved a proposal to modify the name of the Frank H. McClung Museum to the Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture to better reflect its mission.

The John D. Tickle Engineering Building’s name was also modified to include the middle initial D of its benefactor, a 1965 graduate of the college. The Tickle building will be home to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The building is set to open to students in fall 2013.

Read more about today’s Board of Trustees meeting at the University of Tennessee System website.

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simsen@utk.edu)

Special event parking is available after 4:00 p.m. in the G10 garage next to the arena, the Andy Holt Tower garage across the street, and many other faculty/staff lots on the main campus and just north across Cumberland Ave in Fort Sanders.

To avoid traffic congestion in the heart of campus, concertgoers can park on the agriculture campus and ride a shuttle to the arena. Shuttle service will begin at 6:00 p.m. and continue until the show starts, and will resume at the end of the concert. The parking fee is $10 on campus and includes shuttle service to and from the agriculture campus.

Members of the campus community should be aware that a surge in traffic is expected that afternoon and will continue until the start of the concert. University students and employees leaving campus Friday afternoon are encouraged to avoid Lake Loudoun Blvd. and use either Joe Johnson Drive or Cumberland Ave. to exit campus.

Concertgoers are not allowed to bring backpacks or large bags into the arena. Video cameras or unauthorized recording devices will not be allowed into the concert.

For more information, call the arena management office at 974-0953.

All lanes are open in front of Aconda Court at the corner of Volunteer Boulevard and Cumberland Avenue. The building was demolished as part of the new Student Union Project.

A section of Andy Holt Avenue between Pat Head Summitt Street and Francis Street has reopened, and Circle Drive on the Hill is now open to two-way traffic.

However, other campus roads and sidewalks remain partially or completely closed:

• On Lake Loudoun Boulevard, lanes have been shifted and sidewalks have been closed as part of the campus streetscape beautification project.
• Lane shifts and sidewalk work also continue on Volunteer Boulevard in front of the music building project.
• One lane of Phillip Fulmer Way from Cumberland Avenue to Middle Drive remains closed for the duration of the Student Union project.
• Chamique Holdsclaw Drive remains closed while construction continues on the Lawson Athletic Center Addition.

For more information on these closures, contact the Parking and Transit Services Office at 974-6031.

For more information on campus construction projects, visit the Cone Zone.

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CONTACT:

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, primmc@utk.edu)

On Sunday, December 16, a section of Andy Holt Avenue between Pat Head Summitt Street and Francis Street will be closed for utility work. The section will reopen on January 3.

On Monday, December 17, traffic lanes will close in front of the Aconda Court building, at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and Volunteer Boulevard, to prepare for demolition of the building as part of the new Student Union project.

The closure will include one lane on the east side of Volunteer Boulevard and one lane on the south side of Cumberland Avenue, and will continue until January 3.

Other work taking place December 17:

• A portion of Circle Drive on the Hill will be partially closed and traffic temporarily made two-way while workers repair a leak in underground steam pipes. That work is expected to be complete by January 4.
• Phillip Fulmer Way between Cumberland Avenue and Middle Way Drive will close while workers remove the remaining pieces of pedestrian bridges that were demolished last spring. The section of Phillip Fulmer Way will reopen by January 4. Middle Way Drive will remain open to traffic during this time.
• On Pat Head Summitt Street, concrete sidewalks for the new music building will be poured, requiring a temporary daytime closure of the west entrance to Staff Lot 23 behind Clarence Brown Theatre. The entrance will open each night to accommodate parking for the Clarence Brown Theatre.  The north entrance to the lot on Andy Holt Avenue will remain open during this time.

For more information on these closures, contact the Parking and Transit Services Office at 974-6031.

For more information on campus construction projects, visit the Cone Zone.

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CONTACT:

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, primmc@utk.edu)

During this time, all faculty and staff with a Staff Lot 9 permit will have the option to park in the G10 garage.

For more information, call Parking and Transit Services at 974-6031.

For additional updates on campus construction projects, visit conezone.utk.edu.

On Monday, October 29, construction fencing will go up around Temple Court, Aconda Court, and the building at 812 Volunteer Boulevard. The small Staff Lot 12 in this area will be closed. The area known as “the pit,” including the Smokey’s entrance, also will be inaccessible.

Demolition of the three buildings will begin in mid-December.

The major changes involve the end of the route detour, the addition of another bus, and service to the agriculture campus going to and from the main campus. Beginning Friday, buses will re-enter the agriculture campus after serving Sorority Village, offering Ag students a more direct route to the main campus and the Gate 21 drop-off area.

To avoid confusion, there will be different bus stops/shelters on the agriculture campus depending on whether passengers are going to Sorority Village or to the main campus. Ag campus passengers going to Sorority Village should catch the bus at the bus shelter at Joe Johnson Drive near River Drive. Ag campus students going to the main campus should catch the bus at the shelter on the corner of Service Drive and Joe Johnson Drive. Special signs will be placed at each bus stop/shelter to help inform passengers.

For more information, contact UT Parking & Transit Services at 974-6031 or visit their website.

The sinkhole was discovered over the weekend on Service Drive behind the Plant Biotech Building. It apparently was caused by a broken underground storm sewer. Work crews temporarily filled it in with rock. Repairs will take place on Thursday, August 30, and the road is expected to be drivable by Friday, August 31.

The T shuttle’s Neyland route (formerly the Ag route) has been affected by the sinkhole and shuttle drivers are working to get students from the agriculture campus to the Hill (Gate 21) faster. The Neyland route is traveling a detour route until Friday, August 31.

For more information, call UT Facilities Services at 865-946-7777.

The university appreciates your patience and understanding as we work to resolve the delays in our transit system. If you have questions, please call (865) 974-6031.

Some roads have been narrowed or closed since the spring, while others have been widened and reopened. Work continues on the new Student Union, a new residence hall, the new Natalie L. Haslam Music Center, the John Tickle Engineering Building, and development of Sorority Village at Morgan Hill.

Several roads that were closed for a large part of the summer will reopen by Saturday, including:

• One lane of Phillip Fulmer Way between Cumberland Avenue and Middle Way Drive
• Middle Way Drive at the intersection with Phillip Fulmer Way, which will bring Hill traffic back to its regular flow. Summer traffic on the Hill had been reversed to accommodate the closure of Middle Way Drive
• Peyton Manning Pass

Also opening by the start of classes on Wednesday, August 22: the Rock, UT’s beloved outcropping of personal expression. The Rock has been fenced off for a month due to construction of the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center.

Several roads will remain closed, including:

• One lane of Andy Holt Avenue just west of the pedestrian walkway is closed as part of the Melrose Avenue residence hall construction, but the sidewalk is open.
• The section of Andy Holt Avenue next to the University Center and the Haslam Business Building is permanently closed. It will become a pedestrian plaza as part of the new Student Union complex.
• Chamique Holdsclaw Drive will be closed from Pat Head Summitt Street to Lake Loudoun Boulevard until December 2012 for the addition to the Lawson Athletic Center Football Training Facility.

The east sidewalk on Pat Head Summitt Street north of Volunteer Boulevard will remain closed for ongoing work on the music building.

UT expects slower pedestrian traffic once classes begin due to construction through the center of campus. The following routes have been recommended to avoid the Student Union site:

• To reach the north side of the Hill or north of Cumberland Avenue, the best route is to walk north along Melrose Place, then east between Hodges Library and the Tyson House, cross Volunteer Boulevard north of the Haslam Business Building, then north to Cumberland Avenue, then east toward the University Center.
• To reach the south side of the Hill or Neyland Stadium, the best route is via the newly paved pedestrian path on the north side of Staff 9 lot near Neyland Stadium.

Students, faculty, staff, and visitors should look for signs indicating these pathways, which will be posted throughout campus. People should avoid seeking shortcuts to steer clear of all construction sites.

Several parking lots have been added to UT’s inventory and other lots have been changed to accommodate student, faculty, and staff needs.

The UT Bookstore will be open this weekend for students needing textbooks and supplies. Shuttle buses will run from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, between the Volunteer Hall parking garage, Presidential Courtyard at the corner of Melrose Avenue and Francis Street, and the University Center.

Detailed driving directions and temporary parking information can be found on the Welcome Week webpage. Locate your residence hall and other important buildings on the campus map.

For more information on construction and improvement projects across campus, visit the Cone Zone website.

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C O N T A C T :

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, primmc@utk.edu)

Commuter Students

Another 150 student commuter spaces at Church St. United Methodist Church surface lot – designated as lot C-26 – available from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday but subject to closure during special events*

Another 140 commuter spaces in Poplar Street Lot designated as C-18 – available from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday but subject to closure during special events *

Spaces (52) have been added in a lot at Laurel Avenue and 16th St.—designated as C-9

*effective on Monday, August 20.

Resident (Non-Commuter) Students

Due to construction, the lot at Lake Ave. and Volunteer Blvd. West (N-15) has been redesignated for noncommuters.

Faculty and Staff

Sixty-five staff spaces have been added to Caledonia Ave. (Staff Area 37), which was formerly a noncommuter lot. This substitutes spots lost when Staff Area 23 closed for the new residence hall site.

Forty-one spaces have been added to Lake Avenue (Staff Area 12), just west of Melrose Ave.

UT Parking and Transit Services will be open throughout the weekend to accommodate move-in schedule and permit sales.

For more information, contact Mark Hairr at 974-6031.

The building features newly configured classrooms with brightly colored chairs that are set on wheels and spin in all directions, smart boards, new carpet, and fresh paint with bold accent walls.

New lounge spaces, new seating lining the hallways, wireless networks throughout, charging stations for electronic devices, and upgraded lighting will be available in the building.

It also will have a dining facility, courtesy of Aramark, which will open up to a patio that includes exterior gathering space.

HSS underwent a $4 million renovation this summer in an effort to improve learning and foster more student interaction.

The new classrooms will allow students to easily break into small groups or move seats into a circle for a class discussion.

The upgrades affect every student on campus because no student graduates without taking at least one class in the building. About 20 percent of all UT classes are taught there, and several hundred instructors use it each semester.

The project was a collaborative effort between the Classroom Upgrade Committee, Facilities Services, the College of Architecture and Design, and the Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center.

“We need to modernize our facilities in our journey to the Top 25,” said Frank Cuevas, director of University Housing. “We’re trying to give students what they want—more privacy, more movable furniture. We’re investing in our buildings to bring them up to speed.”

Move-in begins Saturday for more than 7,300 new and returning students who will converge on UT’s twelve existing residence halls.

The new residence hall, on Andy Holt Avenue at the corner of Melrose Avenue, will house 700 undergraduate men and women in two-person suites and four-person super suites.

The suites are double occupancy rooms with a shared bathroom. The super suites are arranged similarly, but connect to a common living room and shared bathroom. Each room type will have a different rental rate.

The hall will have modern-style furniture, including adjustable beds that can be raised or lowered to a desired height. Suites also will be equipped with a desk, desk chair, bed, and dresser. Suites will have a micro fridge and super suites will be equipped with a larger refrigerator.

The hall will offer more community space than existing halls, and its central core will consist of lounges for students to gather and study. Wireless internet also will be accessible within the building. Amenities will include laundry facilities, recreation and fitness rooms. It will have two restaurants: Tortilla Fresca, a Mexican-themed eatery, and a Subway. The eateries will have indoor and outdoor seating.

The cost of constructing the new residence hall is estimated at $59 million, which is being financed through student rental fees and the sale of revenue bonds as approved through the state building commission.

Although this is the first new hall to be built in four decades, the university has updated its housing inventory by acquiring Volunteer Hall, renovating several halls, and retiring its oldest facilities, Melrose, Strong, and Greve halls.

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek had already designated funds to accelerate plans for addressing sorely needed repairs to many campus buildings. Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor for Facilities Services, said state funds will help the university address even more of its deferred maintenance needs and make needed repairs and renovations to more campus buildings.

A total of $16.5 million will be spent on more than 100 roof projects through this fall. A comprehensive roofing condition study completed this spring allowed UT to resolve insurance claims from the hailstorm of April 2011. State funds are being combined with insurance settlements and university deferred maintenance funding to broaden the scope of roof repair projects. Roofs will be repaired or replaced at South College, Biosystems Engineering and Environmental Sciences Building, Andy Holt Tower, Ceramics Annex, and Kingston Pike Building to name just a few.

At least $3 million will be dedicated to masonry repairs, involving brick and structural cement which needs to be repaired or replaced on as many as ten buildings. The work will help head off other potential problems like what occurred with McClung Tower when concrete sections broke off from the building. Buildings include Andy Holt Tower, Pasqua Nuclear Engineering, Taylor Law Center, Hesler Biology, and the wall along Cumberland Avenue in front of Hoskins Library

Another $4 million will address the campus electrical infrastructure through upgrades to the main substation and replacement of the old underground distribution. These upgrades will insure more reliability and provide the additional power required for new construction coming on line.

Several other university-funded projects will have a big impact for students for the fall semester. The Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) building renovation is on schedule and set to reopen for fall semester. The planned addition of two food vendors and the outdoor seating plaza on the east side of HSS will be completed in early fall.

A large-scale upgrade to Hodge’s Library Commons, funded by student library fees, is also on schedule and the newly configured and furnished space will be ready to welcome students in early September. Students can also look forward to the opening of the new recreation complex on Sutherland Avenue which will be ready next spring semester.

The state budget for fiscal year 2012-13 also included $94 million in state capital funds for renovation and expansion of Strong Hall to add needed classrooms and laboratories. The campus will contribute $18.75 million for the project, which will begin next summer.

Planning is currently underway for a Science Laboratory Facility at Cumberland and 13th avenues, a new academic building at Melrose Hall for academic and instructional support space, and a new residence hall for upper-division students. Planning will soon begin for the demolition of Stokely Athletics Center and the renovation on the Panhellenic Building. For additional project updates, visit conezone.utk.edu.

A small parking lot on the north side of Hess Hall will be converted into an open-air seating area, sidewalks on both sides of Melrose Avenue will be widened and improved, and additional angled parking will be available on the north side of the street. Handicapped parking spots and a new entrance will be added to the front of the International House.

Hodges Library and the I-House will remain open during the road work, with pedestrian access and employee parking available in the Staff 12 lot next to the I-House.

Limited access to Melrose Avenue for local traffic will be granted on July 26-27. No on-street parking will be permitted until the road reopens on August 4.

For more information on campus road and construction projects, visit the Cone Zone at conezone.utk.edu.

The campus landmark, located at the corner of Volunteer Boulevard and Pat Summitt Street, will be blocked off for its own protection—and that of would-be painters—while crews perform necessary utility, sidewalk, and guttering work around the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center, currently under construction. The Rock and its new surrounding sidewalks are expected to reopen in mid-August, before students return to campus. Classes for the fall semester begin Wednesday, August 22.

The Rock has been a venue for student self-expression since the 1960s. Painting the Rock is a favorite tradition among students. It’s painted thousands of times each year, featuring birthday messages, marriage proposals, original student artwork, and other artistic expressions. View a photo gallery of the Rock here. The university relocated the Rock in 2009 from the south side of Volunteer Boulevard, near the intersection of Pat Head Summitt Street, to its current location. The move helped make room for the new Student Health Building, which opened in January.

The Natalie L. Haslam Music Center began construction in 2010. The $40 million project is expected to open in fall 2013. BarberMcMurry Architects and Blankenship and Partners designed the new music center. Johnson and Galyon is the contractor working on the project. Natalie and Jim Haslam and the Haslam Family Foundation gave the university $32.5 million, $10 million of which was designated to the School of Music, making the new facility possible.

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simsen@tennessee.edu)

The work will commence at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, July 2, and is scheduled to continue through Thursday, July 5.

The Peyton Manning Pass work will coincide with the closure of most of Staff Lot 9 which will be unavailable July 2–9 while workers conduct a series of archaeological digs beneath the parking lot.

Accommodations will be made so motorists parking in the handicapped spots that will remain open in lot 9 can enter and exit via Margaret Alley off Peyton Manning Pass. Similar accommodations will be made for commuters who park in Commuter Lot 20.

For more information on campus traffic, visit conezone.utk.edu.

The excavations are part of preparing the site for the construction of a proposed parking garage.

Employees who normally park in the Staff Lot 9 can park in the G-10 garage next to Thompson-Boling Arena.

Approximately ten handicapped parking spaces in lot 9 will be lost during the closure. To preserve handicapped parking in the area, a number of lot 9 spaces west of “Margaret’s Alley,” the roadway running north from Peyton Manning Pass behind the Claxton and Bailey education complexes, will be temporarily converted to handicapped parking. Once the rest of the lot 9 reopens, the temporary handicapped spots will revert to regular parking.

For more information on campus traffic, visit conezone.utk.edu.