Lakeshore Park is a 185-acre park located along the Tennessee River with expansive views of the Tennessee River and the Great Smoky Mountains. Formerly the site of a state-owned mental health institute, the land was acquired by Lakeshore Park Conservancy and repurposed as a public park in 1996. After an updated Landscape Masterplan was developed, Sanders Pace Architecture was selected to join a team led by landscape architect Nelson Byrd Woltz to provide design services for three new park pavilion structures: a Fieldhouse adjacent to a variety of playing fields; a Garden Pavilion adjacent to a collection of park gardens; and a Playground Pavilion adjacent to a new nature playscape. Individually, the pavilions each serve as a recreational hub and provide support functions for adjacent park programming and activities. Taken together, the family of pavilions introduces a dignified and aspirational civic vocabulary, establishing a vital placemaking strategy that is core to the identity of the park itself.
The Fieldhouse
The Fieldhouse is a new 8,200 SF building serving the park’s “Sports Quadrant,” including the newly relocated baseball fields. The 180’ long structure serves as a “front porch” for the new masterplan, and hosts a picnic area, bathrooms, concession, and an event space. The building’s functions are separated by an open-air dogtrot that serves as an access point and allows for the cross ventilation of cool river breezes during the hot summer months.
The fieldhouse is covered by a 180’ continuous canopy that provides shade and shelter to visitors. Through a strategy of structural layering, the roof profile tapers to a single continuous steel channel, providing a low-profile perimeter edge that renders the fieldhouse as an expression of an elegant horizontal line, distilling, through contrast, a quintessential East Tennessee backdrop of foothills and mountains beyond.
Garden Pavilion
The Garden Pavilion, hosting restrooms and a flexible gathering space, provides shade and access to gardens overlooking the Sports Quadrant. A steel structure provides primary support for the pavilion whose roof is supported by custom wood truss members. A bleached wood screen matching that of the Fieldhouse provides enclosure and shade along the structure’s perimeter. Carefully placed openings within this screen system provide access to the gardens.
Playground Pavilion
The Playground Pavilion provides shade for families exploring a new “nature play” playground at the eastern edge of the playing fields. The Playground Pavilion is an exercise in simplicity. A minimal steel structural system supports clear spans of Douglas Fir joists that taper to a low-profile perimeter edge. The sloped section of the pavilion opens towards the playscape, establishing a clear programmatic relationship between both park elements.
