Blog: Safety Complex Updates

Week 33: Preserving St. Mary's Legacy

Usually, repurposing a large vacant commercial site starts with knocking out walls and razing obsolete buildings.

There's been plenty of that going on for the past eight months at the North Knoxville site that will become, by early 2022, the City's new Public Safety Complex.

But because the site used to be St. Mary's Hospital, the reconstruction work also involves tender and reverential caretaking of historic artifacts.

A Messer Construction Co. crew carefully removes an exterior metal cross from the side of the West Wing, which is being demolished. The cross is being safeguarded for future reuse.

Recently, a Messer Construction Co. crew carefully removed a 20-foot-tall exterior metal cross from the side of the West Wing, which is being demolished.

The cross is being protected and preserved for future reuse. It is in safe storage, alongside memorial marble plaques, cornerstones and historic photos from the 91-year-old iconic hospital.

"We understand the connection between St. Mary's and the many generations of families that it served," City Community Empowerment Director Charles Lomax says. "The City has always been determined to preserve the hospital's legacy, and the construction team shares that commitment, as evidenced by the care being taken to preserve these irreplaceable artifacts."

The Central Wing, patient tower and Annunciation Wing have been demolished. Other North Campus buildings will come down, even as the Professional Office Building, Central Wing Annex and Women's Pavilion are being preserved and transitioned to house Police, Fire, City Court and Pension System operations.

The Magdalen Clarke Tower is being converted into Lincoln Memorial University classrooms. And the original and grand 1929 Building - soon to be free-standing and unobscured for the first time in decades - will anchor future private redevelopment on the north end of the campus.

Aerial view, as of Sept. 28, 2020

Aerial view, Sept. 28, 2020

Meanwhile, this week on the reconstruction site, Renascent crews will begin sifting through the debris from the demolitions and removing the last pieces of metal and insulation. Additionally, they will continue prepping the pad of the downed Annunciation Wing to accommodate placement of debris during the next phase of the project. Renascent also is continuing to pull out the LL3 foundation wall at the Central Wing Annex.

Environmental Abatement Inc. crews this week are completing Professional Office Building upper-floor interior demolition, as well as taking down equipment in the Central Wing Annex Mechanical Room and removing old flooring from the Women's Pavilion.

Here is a view of what the Women's Pavilion now looks like:

Interior of Women's Pavilion

And here are two views of the work underway outside the Central Annex:

View of the area outside the Central Annex

View of the area near the Central Annex (looking north)

Posted by evreeland On 07 October, 2020 at 11:34 AM