2022 Community Collaborative Charrette – MLK Jr. Ave

Each year, the East Tennessee Community Design Center works with neglected and disadvantaged communities to identify needs and encourage innovative, sustainable design solutions. The goal is to highlight an area’s history, bring awareness to its future potential, and inspire responsible long-term development. The selected project area for 2022 is a commercial corridor located in East Knoxville, along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, in a historically African-American neighborhood known as “Five Points”. Rigorous public input sessions established priorities for cultural engagement, walkability, green space & public park access, mixed income housing, and locally owned retail.

To ensure an appropriate, community-led response, our design team collaborated with neighborhood residents to develop a proposal to address stakeholder needs, respect & expand the existing contextual scale of Five Points, and reinforce a vibrant, walkable street-scape. The design is conceived as a stacked, mixed-use building mass with street-level commercial, co-op gardens, public parks, residential units, and an adjacent Community Center. The ground floor plinth contains ample opportunities for locally-owned restaurants, a co-op grocery store, artisan markets, and other community-based retail spaces. The Community Center adjacent to the main development provides additional space for seasonal markets, outdoor performances, and other neighborhood events. Stacked above the plinth are apartments which weave across the entire site, forming courtyards, parks, and other neighborhood amenities.

The development envisions carbon-neutral sustainability features such as Net-Zero energy conservation with on-site energy production, durable & low maintenance building materials, and green roof community gardens & walking trails.

The design also pays historical homage to local modernist painter, Beauford Delaney, and draws inspiration from his works which are used to activate important moments along the street-scapes and imbue color throughout the residential massing.

Framework for Design Excellence