After completing a facility masterplan with MHM, the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) realized that to best utilize their existing building stock and meet their future needs - expansion was required. Always determined to best use member funding, the project team thought creatively about how to achieve needs and workflow without over building.
Rather than constructing a brand-new Engineering and Operations Building, it was determined that the Electric, Natural Gas, Water/Wastewater Engineering and Field Services groups could move into a 50,000 sf addition to the existing building while allowing the Information Services and Operations groups to expand in a renovated facility. The new building was designed to complement the existing material rhythm and connect by an open, light-filled staircase with their respective breakrooms overlooking it.
KUB wanted to make a statement with their new building that not only catered to a new and evolving workforce, but one that set an example of how our future building stock should function for their members by achieving LEED Certification.
Open workstations for each department on every floor coupled with flexible work and meeting spaces along the perimeter, allows for a higher level of collaboration among employees. Workspaces are wrapped by floor to ceiling glass opening to views of the campus spaces and walking trails beyond. This also allows ample daylight into the workspace which research has shown improves employee morale and productivity.
The team found that the pursuit of LEED certification not only challenges you to design more efficiently with more sustainable materials – it also makes you take a hard look at how you function in a building for the betterment of the people in it and the environment as a whole. Sustainable strategies exemplified in the new building include a roof top solar array, limited water usage inside and out, EV charging stations, efficient lighting and mechanical systems available for demand response, and low- emitting materials selections were made throughout.
