Oak Ridge Today

State Building Commission approves design of TCAT campus in Anderson County

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An image shows what the Tennessee College of Applied Technology could look like in Anderson County. (Image courtesy state of Tennessee)

The Tennessee State Building Commission in Nashville on Thursday approved the early design phase of the new TCAT Knoxville Higher Education Center in Anderson County, a press release said.

The 47,603 square-foot technology training facility will be located in the city of Clinton. It will be a shared-use building for TCAT Knoxville and Roane State Community College dedicated to training students for the modern workforce, the press release said.

TCAT is the Tennessee College of Applied Technology.

Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, an Oak Ridge Republican, presided over the State Building Commission meeting approving the design and was integral in getting the project approved, the press release said.

[Read more…]

UT students to host forum on intersection design for Pennsylvania at Tulane

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Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge

 

The Oak Ridge Public Works Department is teaming up with students from the University of Tennessee to explore alternative designs for the intersection at Pennsylvania and North Tulane avenues.

Some residents refer to the five-way intersection near Oak Ridge High School as “malfunction junction.”

The effort to explore alternative designs for the intersection is part of a senior project for the group of students from UT’s College of Civil and Environmental Engineering, a press release said. To help gather input from the community, the students will host an interactive open forum on Monday, March 4. The forum will be held in the Oak Ridge Public Library’s auditorium from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. [Read more…]

Living Light solar-powered home moves to Children’s Museum

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Living Light House Trailer

The University of Tennessee donated the Living Light House to the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, and the 750-square-foot solar-powered home was moved Saturday.

 

The University of Tennessee in Knoxville has donated its Living Light House to the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, and the 750-square-foot solar-powered home was moved Saturday.

The award-winning home makes more energy than it uses, said James Rose, senior lecturer in UT’s College of Architecture and Design.

Moving the 80,000-pound house was a daylong project. The Children’s Museum is in a residential area in Oak Ridge, so the museum had to move trees, excavate a slope, and create a temporary road to get to the site.

Rose said the one-room home, which has mechanical and laundry areas, will be used at the Children’s Museum for outreach and to showcase the latest energy-efficient technologies.

“This is the perfect place for this building,” said Rose, the architect of record on the project and the leader of the student architecture studio that designed it. [Read more…]

ORHS students work on branding, design ideas with mall redevelopment company

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ORHS Students Work on Mall Redevelopment

Standing from left to right are Buddy McWilliams, Payne Adkins, Abigail Clanton, and Chris Giese. Seated from left to right are Wesley Robinson and Alex Tavangaran. (Photo courtesy J. Clint LaFollette)

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For three classes at Oak Ridge High School, the future of the old Oak Ridge Mall property is something the students are taking personally. Nearly 60 students in the Digital Arts and Design and Virtual Enterprise classes have been working on a branding strategy for the once-thriving retail site, and their top ideas will be presented to Crosland Southeast, the Charlotte-based firm that has been working with the City of Oak Ridge to develop a plan to establish a multi-use work-live-play-shop destination.

“It has been an exciting project to work on, because there have been several attempts to revitalize this property, and all have failed due to, among other things, the lack of focus on the specific interest of Oak Ridge residents,” said Buddy McWilliams, an ORHS senior who is working on the project. “Crosland Southeast has shown that they want to be successful by looking at the interest of students and others who will be using the property.”

Crosland Southeast approached Oak Ridge School Board Chairman Keys Fillauer with the idea to work with the students, and an enthusiastic Fillauer discussed it with ORHS Principal David Bryant and teachers Linda Ousley and Clint Lafollette, and the project was off and running.

Ousley is the facilitator of the school’s Virtual Enterprise program. Ousley said that Crosland Southeast will get a good cross-section of Oak Ridge opinion by talking with the students, and the students are getting excellent experience they can use on their future resumes. [Read more…]

Guest column: Diversity in proximity—an aesthetic approach to urban architecture

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I’m very glad there is positive forward movement on redevelopment of the Oak Ridge Mall. However, I feel that the current layout proposed will fall far short of the ideal design, one that will best do what Oak Ridge wants it to.

I recently returned from my honeymoon through the Carolinas and Georgia, and along the way it dawned on me precisely what elements are in play regarding our gut “feelings” about downtown shopping, dining, and nightlife architecture—what makes one place more appealing than another. [Read more…]

Letter: Let’s have a design contest to paint three sewer system holding tanks

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Emory Valley Road Sewer System Holding Tank

A draft image of what a sewer system holding tank could look like on Emory Valley Road. The proposal could change based on input from Oak Ridge City Council members. (Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

To the Editor:

Having attended many meetings (City Council, EQAB, budget), I understand the rationale behind building the holding tanks proposed for the city. I have heard about gravity, clay soil, pumps, federal fines, tax increases, rate increases, rate increases, and the following year, rate increases. I have looked long and hard at the giant holding tank in Knox County on the road leading from Middlebrook Pike to Sam’s (it’s on the right) and looked at maps of the city to ascertain alternate locations. I also picked up a copy of the rate study at the Council work session Monday night.

I really hate to say it, but I think the city has gotten it right. It’s one of those “death and taxes” things. However, I would like to propose a solution to the “big, white, ugly blight on the landscape” inevitability. Let’s start out by painting all of them green. In Oak Ridge that is the best camouflage color. [Read more…]

Faith column: Looking into the faith community, tour of Covenant Presbyterian

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My husband Jack and I recently visited the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church. I had read his impressive bio on the church website and expected that a man with such a long list of accomplishments must be well into his senior years. However, when I met him, beneath the wise and aged appearance of his gray beard, I found a very humble, gracious man close to my own age.

Dr. Nick Willborn began our time together by giving us a tour of their new church facility. It’s the church that sits on the pinnacle of Commerce Park overlooking the Solway entrance to Oak Ridge. One of the first things mentioned is that they are already beginning to discuss Phase 2. I think they’ve only been in this facility for one year!

After enjoying the beautiful view and observing the cars racing by below, we entered the sanctuary from the narthex. Immediately, I noticed the calming soft green they chose for their carpet and chair coverings. “It’s warm in here”, I said, referring to the ambience rather than the temperature.

Dr. Willborn wasted no time explaining that everything about the design of this new sanctuary was intended to point each worshipper to ponder the attributes of God and of the Christian life. First, he pointed out the rays of sunlight beaming in through high windows intended to bring reflection on the “light” given to the Christian pilgrim from the “Light of the world.” He continued by explaining that the vaulted ceiling is designed to speak of the vastness of all that God is.

[Read more…]