Knoxville, TN (city pop. 180,000 metro pop. 650,000) has an architecturally rich downtown which is also fairly well preserved.  With the exception of Gay St., measuring 66ft. wide and identical to Cincinnati's downtown streets (themselves relatively narrow by American standards) the rest of its downtown streets are quite narrow, as is much more common in the South than in Ohio.  This means that the downtown is relatively quiet and not well suited for office towers.  It is currently undergoing a remarkable revitalization driven primarily by the large faculty, staff, and student population of The University of Tennessee, whose edge is within easy walking distance. 

 

Knoxville sits about 25 miles northwest of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, however the mountains themselves can only be briefly glimpsed within city limits due to a line of hills south of the city.  They can be seen from the upper floors of downtown buildings, motivating redevelopment of its older skyscrapers. 

 

This view from a parking garage illustrates how the mountains are tough to see from the city:

 

Here is the uncropped view from the same vantage point.  All of the photos on this thread were taken with a 20mm lens on a Nikon D70 (these images are all "Basic" Jpeg's).  This uncropped image better illustrates the ability of a major mountain range to hide itself.  Reaching the park by car takes roughly an hour from downtown Knoxville.

 

Knoxville's downtown is surrounded on two sides by railroad gulches.  This block of Gay St. is actually a viaduct, these buildings' original ground level is roughly 20-30 feet below what is seen here.  This is a very similar situation to Underground Atlanta, although there are no plans to create a similar tourist trap here.  The gulch west of downtown was redeveloped for the 1982 World's Fair which devolved by the 1990's into the neglected World's Fair Park.   

 

This type of facade has become popular recently in NYC:

 

Central part of Gay St., new condos are being built in the gap at right.

 

Two major condo redevelopments at opposite corners of this intersection:

 

"The Holston":

 

The Holston's advertising banner:

 

 

The red brick building and art deco building on the right side are connected inside and were coverd by a continuous modernist facade until its removal and their redevelopment in 2000-2001:

 

Gay St. looking south:

 

The east side of Market Square:

 

West side of Market Square.  This square is quite similar in scale to the public markets in Cincinati.

 

View from the UT campus looking toward The Sun Sphere and dowtown Knoxville:

 

From what I can tell, the last railing and light fixture remaining from the 1982 World's Fair:

 

View from Clinch Ave. in the Ft. Sanders neighborhood looking toward the Sun Sphere and downtown:

 

The Blount Mansion (1798?), another old house, and the Gay St. Bridge:

 

Check out the huge growth of kudzu on the opposite bank:

 

 

 

 

 

New Market Square parking garage:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new Knox County Courthouse, completed in 1997-98.  The old courthouse is still standing but I forgot to take a photo of it.

 

One of downtown Knoxville's incredibly narrow streets:

 

View from the Gay St. bridge looking back toward downtown.  This bridge carried three lanes and was looking rough until its refurbishment around 2004 which widened its sidewalks and narrowed the bridge to two lanes. 

 

 

 

 

This real steam engine hauls an excursion train on the weekends.  The old bridge is a spur that formerly led to two marble quarries in South Knoxville from which, among other things, the marble for the I.M. Pei-designed expansion of the National Gallery of Art was built.  The two quarries both hit springs and are now full of a surreal turquoise colored water.  One or two very short trains still use this bridge each week to serve a small chemical plant about 5 miles from this spot. 

 

A Dodge 400 convertable -- there can't be more than 30 of these still on the road!

 

A monsterous growth of kudzu over power lines, the mass is about 20ft. tall.

 

A Ohio-type house in downtown Knoxville which has been allowed to deteriorate in an Ohio-like fashion:

 

This old mansion is a Euro-style nightclub and also hosts wedding receptions and other events:

 

View of Neyland Drive from the Gay St. Bridge:

 

More kudzu:

 

Youngstown Bridge Co., 1897:

 

Henley St. Bridge:

 

 

 

The first bar (without live music) I went to regularly, starting at age 19.  I was happy to hear that its underaged rep is still being upheld. 

 

Some more of the incredible foliage you don't see in Ohio:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great tour, handsome city. I like narrow streets; they help create a feeling of density.

Looks nice but kind of boring and sleepy.

Well...I'll check it out one day.

Anyone who loves college football should go to Knoxville for a UT game sometime.  Without a doubt the best atmosphere and stadium anywhere.  Thanks for the pics.

Anyone who loves college football should go to Knoxville for a UT game sometime.  Without a doubt the best atmosphere and stadium anywhere.  Thanks for the pics.

 

Grrrrrrr...

I wonder how Knoxville looked after LSU pulled out a victory up there Saturday.  :clap: :laugh:

Having seen a number of games and losses in Knoxville, I can tell you, they went to old city and PARTIED!!!

The disappointing thing about Knoxville is that the big party strip is pathetic. I forgot what they call it, but its a bunch of storefront structures mixed in with suburban strip-style bars and Applebees. Total waste of a great opportunity.

Anyone who loves college football should go to Knoxville for a UT game sometime.  Without a doubt the best atmosphere and stadium anywhere.  Thanks for the pics.

 

Its a great atmosphere, but I'd say Notre Dame beats it out. I've been to both. Even my Tennessee friends will admit to as much.

very nice job of covering the town. i have a friend there but havent been in prob 10 yrs. based on what i remember, it was indeed fairly sleepy and so the renovations and condos are great to see. also, beside that ohio style house i'd say the henley st bridge is very clevelandy looking.

Yeah, those narrow streets give that downtown some character...they remind me a bit of Charleston WVA and the sidestreets of downtown Lexington.  And that new county courthouse?  Woah...colonial Williamsburg run amok, yet it works somehow.

 

Whats odd is that riverfront.  Such a nice river, and the town looks like it is on a pretty high bluff over it, but it doesnt seemt to be doing much with the riverfront, aside from what looks like a big highway running below that bluff.

 

What is the rest of the city like..it seems the downtown is a bit isloated from the rest of the city?  By those railroad gulches?

 

 

Does the Sunsphere still house a wig shop as per The Simpsons?

 

 

The Sun Sphere has been closed for quite awhile, when I went in there last it was probably 1999 and there had to have been a hole in one of the gold windows because there were about 3 birds flying around inside the observation floor (I think there are two floors) and there was bird poop on the ripped up carpet.  There was no air circulation and needless to say it was pretty musty.  The view is gold-tinted and not anything to write home about, from what I can remember you can only barely see the mountains, just like in the first photo in the thread.  My brother lives in Knoxville and said he heard someone's trying to put a bar in there.  That would be pretty cool but it's really not very big in there, I'm guessing a 35ft. diameter and the center of the ball is taken up by the elevator and utilities so I'm not sure how they'd fit both a bar and bathrooms in there without taking up both floors. 

 

>The disappointing thing about Knoxville is that the big party strip is pathetic. I forgot what they call it, but its a bunch of storefront structures mixed in with suburban strip-style bars and Applebees. Total waste of a great opportunity.

 

It's the Cumberland Ave. strip, or just "The Strip".  It indeed is a disaster, it's what happens when a university and city are asleep at the wheel for decades.  I don't have any photos of The Old City, or The Old Intersection, as I always called it.  The Strip is now more hideous than ever and there are only a few of the bars left from ten years ago.  For example Hannah's opened a new bar in the old city ("Hannah's East", I think) and it's doing way more business than the original Hannah's.