Blog: Safety Complex Updates

Crews to Repair Original Brick Façade at Public Safety Complex

In the coming weeks, people passing by the Public Safety Complex reconstruction site in North Knoxville will be seeing scaffolding and crews working to anchor the brick façade on the easternmost building.

After discovering the brick envelope on the former Professional Office Building was not properly fastened decades ago, the City is executing an emergency procurement to rectify the pre-existing problems.

Brick facade, former Professional Office Building

Brick facade, former Professional Office Building

The building in question sits off St. Mary Street, near Woodland Avenue, and its facade is more than 40 years old. Project managers say there’s a potential for the bricks to pull away from the existing building and fall, making the building temporarily unsafe and the repairs urgent.

The emergency procurement is for up to $5 million.

“The discovery of the unsafe brick envelope was unexpected, but it will be fixed quickly,” said Deputy to the Mayor David Brace, the City’s Chief Operating Officer.

“Admittedly, this is an unforeseen development, but it’s important to keep in mind that this makeover of a vacated hospital campus is a vital investment in both North Knoxville and in our City employees.

“This project enhances and strengthens the surrounding neighborhoods, and the City and its partners are creating new health, housing and educational opportunities.”

The transformation of the closed St. Mary's Hospital into a new Public Safety Complex began 2.5 years ago.

Rather than allow the empty property to fall into decay, the City and private partners have reimagined a campus that will be a hub of government functions, college classes, a tree-lined quadrangle, a stately marble-accented historic gem, and, likely, new neighborhood housing and green space.

Dilapidated and obsolete hospital buildings were razed, and City contractors reconstructed three empty buildings – the former Professional Office Building, Central Wing Annex and Women's Pavilion – to serve as a combined complex for the Police and Fire Departments, Pension System, City Court and E-911 backup operations.

The City anticipates substantial completion of the Public Safety Complex by the end of this year.

Next door, at the former Magdalen Clarke Tower, Lincoln Memorial University is privately investing $40 million and will graduate hundreds of nursing and dental students each year.

To the north, the historic 1929 Building – the original St. Mary’s Hospital – was carefully preserved and protected, and it will anchor the north end of the site, which the City cleared as a precursor for future private development. New housing and public green space is envisioned on some or all of the site.

On the south side of the campus, the City and Knox County in the near future also will be jointly converting the 25,000-square-foot former St. Mary's Ambulatory Surgery Center into an urgent care and behavioral health facility, in partnership with the McNabb Center.

Posted by evreeland On 26 August, 2022 at 10:18 AM