NASHVILLE -- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has the official go-ahead to proceed with planning a $40 million maintenance-and-renovation project for the state's seven-story former Chattanooga State Office Building on 540 McCallie Ave.
State Building Commission members unanimously approved the project this month, allowing it to proceed and authorizing UTC to select a designer to develop specific plans for the 47,269-square-foot building. The project was included by Gov. Bill Lee this year in his recommended budget later approved by state legislators.
Work on the Arte Moderne-style building, built in 1954 for the Interstate Life & Accident Insurance Co., is expected to take several years. The building was purchased by the state in the early 1980s. The state ceded the building to UTC in 2013.
Just planning the work could take upwards of a year, with needs ranging from replacing elevators to electrical systems while bringing classrooms and lab space up to current needs and the installation of new classrooms as well as technology.
"Mostly, it's a maintenance project," UTC Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer Vicki Farnsworth said in a phone interview. "Elevators will be replaced. All the electrical systems will be updated. All of the HVAC systems, the roof, windows, those will be the priority."
UTC originally planned to demolish the building but later reversed course. That came after the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2014 listed the structure as one its 11 most endangered buildings nationwide. The building's exterior features ruby granite and grayish-white limestone and a bronze frieze intended to represent the mountain character of Southeast Tennesseans.
The building is now known as 540 McCallie. It was one of three major projects included in this year's state spending plan. A decade ago, its fate was up in the air after outside consultants labeled it as one of four state buildings that were old and obsolete.
The university has already done work on the building. But some floors still need major work, said Farnsworth, who is also serving as the university's interim chancellor for finance and administration.
"There are two floors that haven't been renovated, that haven't had anything updated since we obtained the building," Farnsworth said. "And that is the second floor and the sixth floor."
Plans call for putting classrooms on the second floor.
"We need more lab space, flexible lab space like physics (programs)," Farnsworth said, later adding that "because it's a maintenance project with the state, UTC can't move walls and change purposes of spaces. But you can come up and update the finishes."
The university may move some general-purpose science classrooms from Holt and Grote halls to the planned second-floor space in the 540 McCallie building.
UTC also plans to install technology-enhanced classrooms designed to encourage team-based active learning by making it easier for students to collaborate and participate in group work. That includes installation of special work tables with computer monitors to facilitate learning and collaboration.
Farnsworth said plans call for using the sixth floor for the dean of arts and sciences as well as for some academic departments.
UTC recently had the fifth floor renovated to consolidate its internet technology operations, where workers were previously housed in nine separate buildings. Farnsworth recalled that the psychology departments are on the third floor.
The fourth floor is used as space where workers schedule their use of workspaces such as desks, cubicles and offices as opposed to having permanently assigned seating. That enables UTC to deal with surge needs.
"We'll probably be about a year in design of what the project actually looks like and solidify kind of what departments (are located in the building). But I imagine it will be the social sciences, things like history, sociology," Farnsworth said.
State Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, who attended UTC as a student, said by phone that "to my knowledge and understanding, UTC has always been good stewards of the dollars that have been invested by the state. And the growth at UTC not only warrants this kind of investment, UTC is worthy of it."
Calling UTC an "asset to the UT system," Hakeem said the project "illustrates not only the growth that has taken place but the leadership taken by UTC moving forward into the future."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.