Students walk to class on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in this Nov. 12, 2014, photo.This summer, ground should be broken for a 600-bed residence hall fronting Vine Street at the corner of Houston Street.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, River City Co. and Unum have teamed up to design and build the housing, which will have a first floor dedicated to retail uses, such as a bookstore and possibly a coffee shop and brewpub. "Super-sized" sidewalks more than 20 feet wide are meant to encourage pedestrians to walk between campus and downtown.
"We really see this to be a hub," River City President Kim White said in a UTC promotional video. "Now that you have this wonderful [new UTC] library at one end, you have Georgia Avenue at the other end, I really see this being a hub of activity and what we've been missing as far as that connection to downtown. You see this great promenade on Vine Street."
UTC Chancellor Steve Angle said, "It's going to be really exciting to see. We're hoping it will open up our campus to the community."
The Vine Street revitalization is the sort of "gown meets town" effort that recently helped UTC be one of 361 schools designated as a Community Engagement University by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
"For us, it's a big deal," Angle said. "We're looking at how can we help this community."
Efforts that UTC cited in its application include the following:
UTC's acquisition of Engel Stadium, the former home of the Lookouts, Chattanooga's AA minor league baseball team. UTC plans to develop the 28-acre site with recreational and sports amenities for surrounding neighborhoods.
Since 2007, East Fifth Street has been used as a functioning laboratory for UTC civil engineering faculty and students. They have experimented with various paving materials and techniques and applied them in partnership with the city's public works department and in-kind materials donations from Brentwood, Tenn.-based Highways Inc.
UTC faculty and students have investigated things ranging from the growth and reproductive responses of the rare large flower skullcap to disturbances including fire and forest thinning.
The Carnegie Foundation, through the work of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, developed the first classification system of American colleges and universities in 1970 as a research tool to describe and represent the diversity of U.S. higher education, the foundation's website says.
Most classifications rely on national data, but the Community Engagement University classification is "elective." Institutions participate voluntarily by submitting required materials describing the nature and extent of their community engagement.
Contact educationwriter Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu ortwitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.