This adaptive reuse project transforms three of the last remaining Griffin Produce buildings on the block into an important neighborhood commercial ‘outpost’ within the Fort Sanders district. The larger context of this transformation underscores its critical nature – the ‘Strip’ along Cumberland Avenue continues to be demolished wholesale and replaced with large-scale mixed-use buildings as the University of Tennessee’s student body expands, and older industrial buildings within Fort Sanders are ever more frequently under threat of demolition by housing developers and hospital expansion plans that see little value in these structures. The immediate context of the project is also a reflection of the challenges at hand: the remainder of the Griffin Produce buildings – a fixture of the southwest quadrant of ‘The Fort’ for decades – were demolished to make way for a surface parking lot. In light of these preservation headwinds, peripheral commercial properties become ‘hubs’ that serve the everyday needs of neighborhood residents within easy walking distance. Locally owned, this market, liquor store, and future restaurant help maintain the residential scale and character of the district, and foster a sense of community. The project required a skilled design team to handle the rehabilitation of the structure itself, and an owner that saw the value in a building that others might overlook.
The design team approached the project with respect for the existing building in its found form, maintaining and celebrating the existing exposed wood ceiling/roof, steel mezzanine-level beams, and raw CMU walls at the interior. At the exterior, the desire for transparency inherent to a retail setting required new large glazed openings organized logically within the bays of the building. New white brick cladding at the front gives the most public oriented elevation a face-lift, but the design team stopped the brick just short of the corners, parapets and glazed openings as a way of highlighting the existing CMU structure. New blade-like painted steel awnings at each bay are a nod to the oversize awnings that were characteristic of Griffin Produce buildings. The resulting design is one that thoughtfully balances a respect for this overlooked building type with new programmatic requirements that come with adaptive reuse.