Second Act
Historic Tennessee Theatre reborn, augmented in Knoxville t

By Candy McCampbell

Engineers had to crawl on their hands and knees through the historic Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville to find out what they would be getting into during its renovation, restoration and expansion.

The theater's stage had to be reworked so it could handle Broadway plays, and it needed to expand over a public street at the rear of the building. Plumbing and electric lines would also have to be installed without destroying any walls in the historic structure.

And then there was the issue of cost to do it all.

Architect McCarty Holsaple McCarty of Knoxville and contractor Denark Construction Inc. of Knoxville got together early on the plans to guarantee a maximum price of $24.5 million for the Historic Tennessee Theatre Foundation, said Scott A. Webb, project manager and associate at McCarty.

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That's a bargain, said Darlene Smolik, the foundation's project coordinator. Gutting the Moorish Revival building and starting from scratch would have cost $100 million to $150 million, she said. The building, to be completed in December, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Early planning also included sessions with subcontractors, the state historic preservation officer, the local Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator and city planning, zoning and traffic officials.

"You go in and examine every inch of the building," said Allan Cox, project manager and vice president at Denark. "You go through plans, line item by line item, and help plug the holes."

Webb said a strong a regimented tracking system was set up on the front end, and any cost change must be approved by Webb, Cox, Bruce Hartmann, the foundation's chairman, and Bill Campbell, chairman of its building committee.

The five-story, 3,500-sq.-ft. stage expansion will extend over the street on top of 28-ft. trusses cantilevered off two column lines, each carrying a load of 5 million tons, Webb said. The addition is 18 ft. above street level, allowing for large vehicles to pass beneath it, and sits on caissons as large as 5 ft. in diameter and as deep as 200 ft.

The original building's 5-ft. by 5-ft. by 3-ft. concrete footings will remain, but old footings under the stage were beefed up for the expansion.

David Masterson, regional vice president of masonry contractor WASCO Inc. of Knoxville and Nashville, said the addition was out of plumb by about 3 in. after the steelwork was finished to allow for the counterweight of the block and brick.

The addition also took up possible laydown space, leaving suppliers with a just-in-time delivery requirement.

"We did a lot on Saturdays, when you could get quick street closures," said Dean Thomas, project manager for Engert Plumbing and Heating of Knoxville, the mechanical and plumbing contractor.

Once complete, the stage addition will be noticeably distinct from the rest of the theater.

"The state historic preservation officer said, 'It has to be obvious that this structure was added on,'" Webb said.

The brick veneer over the structural steel frame is similar to the original, but the new terra cotta medallion insets and trim will be noticeably distinct.

Conversion from a movie house to a stage venue also added acoustical challenges, Webb said. Stage-house walls are 12-in. concrete block with non-shrink grout in every core, supplied by a single pump feeding 120 ft. up and 150 ft. horizontally, Masterson said.

Offstage, ceilings and floors get special anti-noise treatment.

Overhead, the fly floor and amplifier rack room have double walls, Webb said. Floors have 2 in. of insulation sandwiched between a pair of structural slabs. Below, the dressing rooms have three layers of drywall hung from the ceiling.

In one of the biggest modifications, stage area exterior doors are 3 in. thick with a double frame to keep noise out, Webb said.

The main floor, an 8-in.-thick concrete slab, slopes from 5 ft. in the back to 18 in. in front, he said. It's dotted with dead-air return grids that will taper in size to coincide with new curved aisles and seats.

The building had been in use until the day before demolition started in June 2003, but the interior had suffered both from old age and water.

EverGreene Painting Studios of New York, restoration painting specialists, removed damaged plaster work, made molds, and cast and installed new trim. Then came "a good scrubbing and painting," said Paul Tickle, EverGreene manager.

Metallic paints had tarnished and repeated overglazing had changed some of the original colors, which were uncovered by scraping.

Another surprise was the laborious scrollwork stencil on the domed ceiling.

"We laid it out by hand, using a template and altered it as we went," Tickle said.

The project is being funded in part by historic preservation rehab tax credits, in combination with New Market Tax Credits, which should generate savings of about $4.5 million, Smolik said.

Other savings are coming from the re-use of systems and materials in the building, including:

• The 5.5-ft. diameter fans used for air supply and return that are being dismantled, cleaned, lubricated and put back to work.
  
  

• Solid marble bathroom stalls, as well as toilets and urinals.
  
  
• Three 6-ft. chandeliers from the lobby and two smaller ones, plus other wall lighting fixtures.
  
  
• Patterned terrazzo floors in the main lobby and 1-in. tile floors in restrooms.
  
  
• Brick from an1890s store on the side of the building, removed because its mortar was disintegrating.