In the early 1980’s, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) began construction of James White Parkway, a controlled access four-lane highway which bisected South Knoxville in order to link Downtown Knoxville to a broader highway network and series of destinations southeast of Knoxville including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The project was never completed and only a 2-mile portion of this seldom used four-lane highway exists today extending Downtown Knoxville south across the Tennessee River where it terminates in a dead-end. In and around property acquired for the highway’s completion, a series of outdoor recreation destinations began to develop which together has evolved to become Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness, one of the most popular and dynamic outdoor recreation destinations in the United States.

Sanders Pace Architecture is part of the Urban Wilderness Gateway Project team which is transforming the James White Parkway into the 2.2 mile and 112-acre gateway to the Urban Wilderness. This spatial and processional experience extends and expands on the traditional concept of a gateway and connects the Urban Wilderness and surrounding neighborhoods to the heart of downtown Knoxville. The linear park culminates in the highway dead end and underpass bridge—an incredibly unique place with charismatic features. The terminus design unites the two worlds of the site – urban and wild – in order to create a strong, distinctive threshold that accentuates these differences and celebrates the underpass as a framing device and a place for play.  Improvements at the Baker Creek Preserve Trailhead create a more open and public entrance to the site’s famous mountain biking trails with a large sloped lawn, soft plaza gathering space, picnic pavilion, and parking. The greenway winds through the site and ends at the trailhead, completing the connection from the Terminus.

*Project completed in collaboration with PORT Urbanism