News
May 2021
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021
Loghaven Artist Residency featured in the Knoxville News Sentinel.
See inside Loghaven, South Knoxville artists’ retreat that won top architectural prize
Ali JamesShopper News
Knoxville-based Sanders Pace Architecture will receive the 2021 American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Award for its design of the 90-acre Loghaven Artist Residency campus, a secluded site of historic log cabins and deep woods in South Knoxville.
It is the highest honor for architecture in the nation, and only one other building in Tennessee ever has won the award, which celebrates the best contemporary architecture — no matter the budget, size, style or type.
Sanders Pace worked alongside the Aslan Foundation, which funded the project, during a six-year planning and design process.
“I don’t think people realize how important the award is,” said Andrea Bailey, Aslan Foundation executive director. “During the history of the award there has only been one other building in all of Tennessee that has won it.”
One of the things that stood out for the campus as a whole is the way the buildings interact with nature and with each other, Aslan Foundation officials told the AIA committee.
“There is this unfolding from one space to the next, the way the studio is perched on a hillside — this old and new — to me, it’s the full package,” Bailey said.
More:Once threatened by developers, South Knoxville’s saved Loghaven becomes artists retreat
More:Want out of the house? Explore South Knoxville history on a driving tour
Artists from across the country — in visual art, dance, music, writing, theater and interdisciplinary work — can stay there. To date, five cabins have been restored, each featuring original logs, a working fireplace, a porch, artist working space and modernized kitchens and bathrooms.
A visual arts studio and performing arts studio are cantilevered structures that extend into the tree canopy and capture views through 8-foot windows.
“The idea is to give the artists an opportunity to get away from their 9-to-5 jobs and focus on their art,” Bailey said. “They not only have the time and resources, but the appropriate studio space.”
Building named for Jim McDonough
Aslan Foundation director and retired architect Jim McDonough died March 6, and to honor his life, the 3,900-square-foot central building was named the McDonough House.
The building serves as the operations center for the residency and is a small multi-disciplinary venue that can accommodate small performances and space and equipment for up to five artists to collaborate.
“There is a kitchen, living and dining room where the artists can come and gather,” Bailey said. “That was important to Jim; I don’t think this project would have happened without him, and it is an important way to honor him.”
McDonough mentioned Loghaven to Sanders Pace Architecture while discussing the 600-acre plan for the Battlefield Loop in 2014.
“I had never heard of it before,” founding partner Brandon Pace said. “Loghaven is in the center of the Battlefield Loop, and there were old cabins that they were looking to restore. And we were hired to make them safe and comfortable.” The project soon expanded beyond rehabilitation.
Pace said that they saw the project as a conversation across eras. “The first era was the development of Native American settlements; the first modern era was Myssie Thompson in the 1930s.”
(To support her family during the Great Depression, Martha “Myssie” Thompson built a nest of rental cabins on the ridgetop she called “the hill.”)
“I said that the next phase should not just be a replication of Myssie Thompson’s era,” Pace said.
Connecting new, historic and natural
“The historic cabins all have a stone base, the same metal roofs; four have round logs, one with hewn logs,” Pace said of the design. “We took that material language and how they related to the site and made everything a little more refined. The buildings are built to meet current energy goals and are heavily insulated with lots of references back to the original structures.”
McDonough was really the design champion, Pace said. “During the process he challenged us not to leave anything unconsidered,” he said. “It is a dream project and a dream client. As a student you never think you’ll get to do this as a professional.”
Michael Davis is a project architect and a lead designer at Sanders Pace Architecture; he’s been involved since the first site work in 2014.
“We looked at the cabins and wondered what the heck we were going to do?” Pace said. “He was the project manager on the digital and performing arts studios, the first phase of the five cabins and the McDonough House.” Davis has just received a Young Architect award as well.
“Lindsay McDonough (Aslan Foundation Board Member) kept saying it’s about the place, not a single building,” Pace said. “She wanted to preserve the character, the trees and the experience of walking down Loghaven drive.”
Sanders Pace removed the ill-conceived additions — decks that were not in keeping with what Myssie Thompson would have done. “She built the cabins some 80 years ago; a lot of the things were structural interventions,” Pace said.
The history of Loghaven is captivating.
“Myssie Thompson did something that would be unusual in this day, much less building a rental community of log cabins during the Great Depression,” Bailey said. “She was a single mother and took part in building some of the cabins herself. She built them with her contractor as she had the funds. She oversaw the rentals until she was about 80.
“The character was there, we just wanted to make sure that character lasts.”
The Loghaven Artists Residency, opened in January 2020, will launch an open call for applications on June 1. Submissions will be accepted from emerging and established artists across the U.S., ages 21 and up.
Free tours of the indoor and outdoor artists spaces will be given at 5:30 p.m. May 13 and May 20 or 9:30 a.m. June 9. Masks and registration required: eventbrite.com/e/loghaven-spring-tours-tickets-153036882435.
More details about the artist residency criteria at loghaven.org/residencies/apply.