JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) – Architects armed with renderings, and historians with dreams made their way Wednesday to the Jim Moss Center for Nursing at Jackson State Community College to discuss plans for the new Tennessee Museum, scheduled to open by the third quarter of 2018.
“This project is 35 years in the making,” said Gary Everton of EOA Architects in Nashville. “This is a very large, very complicated task (but) the true believer knows it’s time for a new home.”
Everton said the 137,000 square foot facility, which will be located at Rosa Parks Boulevard and Jefferson Street is northwest of the state capitol, next to the Bicentennial Mall.
Gov. Bill Haslam and the Tennessee General Assembly appropriated $120 million for the museum with $40 million arriving in private funding.
“The museum was originally housed in the War Memorial Building,” Everton said. “It moved to the James K. Polk Building in 1981, where it hosts 115,000 visitors annually.”