Blog: Safety Complex Updates

Weeks 44 and 45: Closing Out 2020 With Protective Work at 1929 Building, Final Demos, Debris Cleanup

As 2020 comes to a close, it's a good time to reflect on the progress that's been made by contractor crews as they convert the vacant St. Mary's Hospital campus in North Knoxville into a new $40 million City Public Safety Complex.

The City Communications Department throughout the year has been providing weekly updates on the project, which will close out its 45th week at the end of the month. Up-to-date information is shared with North Knoxville neighborhood groups and on the City's website.

Most noticeable by now is the openness of the former hospital site, as a maze of obsolete buildings have been razed, and the last remaining structures will be coming down in early 2021. Here is how the Safety Complex site now looks:

Aerial view of the Public Safety Complex site, December 2020, looking southward

The Central, Annunciation, West, Marian and St. Joseph's Wings largely have been demolished. Earlier this month, Renascent crews were tackling the takedown of McCauley Hall.

Meanwhile, the best bones of the former hospital are being preserved and repurposed.

The Professional Office Building, Central Wing Annex and Women's Pavilion, along with the adjacent parking garages, are being remade into new space to house Police, Fire administrative, City Court, Pension System and back-up E-911 operations. Completion and move-in is expected in early 2022.

Lincoln Memorial University is starting nursing education programs next year in the Magdalen Clarke Tower.

And the iconic and stately 1929 Building, the original hospital that opened 91 years ago, is being preserved. In fact, the City is investing an extra $6.5 million to clear the north end of the site, to create a blank canvas for future private redevelopment. The 1929 Building will anchor that redevelopment.

With the antiquated medical buildings removed, the 1929 Building now is free-standing and unobscured for the first time in decades.

Meanwhile, some key jobs are underway this week and next.

Renascent employees will continue to surgically separate the 1929 Building, which is being saved, from the North Wing, which is being demolished. G&P Masonry crews are mobilizing to begin crafting CMUs (Concrete Masonry Units) as infill where needed to close up gaps in walls created by the demolition of connected buildings.

Renascent crews are surgically separating the 1929 Building and the North Wing.

Renascent crews are surgically separating the 1929 Building and the North Wing.

Renascent employees will continue to surgically separate the 1929 Building, which is being saved, from the North Wing, shown here, which is being demolished.

Renascent crews also are continuing to process demolition materials and haul scrap from the site. Processing and sorting debris will continue into the new year.

Renascent also began removing a large concrete slab that had been a part of the West Wing foundation.

Meanwhile, Environmental Abatement Inc. crews this week are expected to bring a crane onto the site to remove the chiller from the Professional Office Building. They'd previously dismantled the rooftop cooling towers. EAI also will begin work on the Women's Pavilion exterior ceilings.

Renascent is removing the West Wing concrete slab.

Renascent is removing the West Wing concrete slab (photo above). Meanwhile, McCauley Hall demolition continues (photo below).

Posted by evreeland On 23 December, 2020 at 11:32 AM