Historic Zoning Commission

Tennessee Theatre Individual H Landmark: Level II

2-A-20-HZ

Staff Recommendation

Staff recommends approval of the work as proposed.


Location Knoxville
604 S. Gay St. 37902

Owner
Historic Tennessee Theatre Foundation

Applicant Request
Level II. Construction of addition or outbuilding
Additions
Construction of an addition connecting the southwest elevation of the Tennessee Theatre's auditorium space with the rear (northeast) elevation of 612 S. Gay Street. The six-story addition will serve to connect the two buildings and provide egress and stair access. The addition will connect to the Theatre exterior via expansion joints at floors two and three. Two new openings will be created in the masonry on the auditorium's southwest elevation on floors two and three. These openings will allow for two sets of double doors providing access ot the stairwell.

The addition will have a flat roof with a parapet wall, an exterior of corrugated metal siding, and a narrow, insulated translucent wall panel extending the length of the addition adjacent to the Theatre wall.

The addition will be minimally visible from the public right-of-way.

Addition's design to match drawings submitted 2/3/2020 and/or 2/19/2020.

Staff Comments
Renaissance Revival, c.1908 & c.1928
    The Burwell Building and the Tennessee Theatre form a building complex, with the construction date of the Burwell (1907-1908) preceding the Tennessee Theatre (1928) by approximately twenty years. The Burwell Building is a Renaissance Revival-style, ten-story plus mezzanine and basement, office building. The Gay Street façade (west elevation) is seven bays wide, with the additional four bays added in 1928 with the construction of the Tennessee Theatre. A large auditorium section fronts Clinch Avenue and State Street.

2. The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.
3. Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, will not be undertaken.
4. Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved.
5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.
9. New additions, exterior alterations or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.
10. New additions and adjacent or related new construction will be undertaken in such a manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.
Applicant

Whitney Whitney Manahan - McCarty Holsaple McCarty McCarty Holsaple McCarty


Planning Staff
Lindsay Lanois
Phone: 865-215-3795
Email: lindsay.lanois@knoxplanning.org

Case History