Knoxville Botanical Garden & Arboretum Visitor Center | de leon & primmer architecture workshop

The project implements the first phase of a master plan to revitalize and enhance the visitor experience at the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, a historic 43-acre former nursery property located at the outskirts of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The property is notable for extensive series of stone walls & structures that define various themed gardens.

Working with a modest budget that includes site development, the 5,000 s.f. Visitor Pavilion repurposes an abandoned concrete block storage building through a flexible-use program that includes a reception area, indoor & outdoor exhibit / event spaces, gift shop and ancillary support spaces. The rectangular building plan is simply organized to consolidate core functions at each end, thereby maximizing a centralized multipurpose area that directly connects to an outdoor terrace.

Taking advantage of site orientation, topography and axial connections to existing garden elements & pathways, the project provides new apertures that create visual and physical thresholds to the property at large – each responding to four unique relationships to the natural grade: raised arboretum overlook, upper level event terrrace, west entry terrace, and sloped fern grove.

Inspired by the arboretum’s collection of trees and the wooded context, the design strategy overlays a series of modular wall and ceiling elements that recall traditional garden features such as growing trellises and decorative follies. An exterior cladding of custom-folded expanded aluminum mesh panels – drawing on an abstraction of tree bark textures - provides a continually changing surface that transforms the building through natural & artificial light. An interior ‘coffered’ ceiling of bent wood veneer panels is detailed & installed to recall the patterns of the expanded metal mesh panels used on the exterior, while also reflecting the quality of dappled light from the surrounding tree canopies.

Introducing a sense of tactility and visual complexity, the primary materials of expanded aluminum mesh and wood veneer panels were chosen for their economy and durability - utilizing simple installation techniques, modular components and local off-site prefabrication with minimal construction waste.