Located in the South Market Street Historic District of Knoxville, the Ely Building was built in 1903 as the home and office for Dr. S. M. Miller who, in the early 20th Century, was instrumental in state legislation establishing policy that required all physicians to be licensed. The district was home and office for other significant figures in the medical profession as well and was one of the city’s first mixed-use neighborhoods.
Over the course of the next 100 years the building suffered through ill-conceived modifications, most recently completed by a television production company whose offices were located on all three floors. In 2013, a couple purchased the property and commissioned SPA to create a dignified renovation vision, with the goal of rehabilitating as a single family house for their family of five. The interior of the house was fully gutted, providing clues for how the original building was laid out. Using these clues as a guide, our team introduced a new organization system that included a service core dividing primary spaces from a corridor overlooking an adjacent parking lot. A new modern steel stair with open risers was also proposed, dually serving as a light monitor bringing light through the center of the building from the roof to the basement. In lieu of a traditional guardrail system, the stair includes a vertically slatted white oak screens that visually unify spaces from floor to floor.
A restrained yet sophisticated materials palette of wide plank white oak floors and white cabinets with the white oak accents complements the historic nature of the Ely Building.