The numerous University of Tennessee alumni and supporters from the Chattanooga area know the high-profile Vol football and men’s basketball programs have been undergoing rebuilding programs this school year.

Well, the UT-Knoxville campus itself has been on quite a rebuilding schedule as well. Close to half a dozen major facility construction projects related to all facets of campus life in Knoxville are underway or have been recently completed.
 

One such structure -- the completion of which should comfort Chattanooga parents of current or future students – is the UT Student Health Center.

Work on the $18.6 million structure was finished in December, and it is now open to serve students.

The 109,000-square-foot facility – located on a former parking lot just across Pat Head Summitt Street from the old Stokely Athletis Center  -- has seven times more space than the 37-year-old former facility at Summitt and Andy Holt Avenue.

"To say we are pleased is an understatement,” said health center administrator Jim Boyle, who gave a tour of the new facility for the Chattanoogan. “We’ve got a very nice facility. It’s probably one of the nicest in the country.”

In fact, he said the University of Georgia’s similarly new facility has been called the Taj Mahal, so he has been jokingly calling the UT facility UTopia, playing off the school’s regular use of the UT initials to describe an aspect of the university.

While the facility looks from the outside much like a typically modern suburban doctor’s office found at such places in Chattanooga as Gunbarrel Road – with multiple waiting areas, patient rooms, and laboratory facilities -- the UT center is actually unique on the inside.

The reason is the diversity of facilities. Also included are a counseling center, a safety environment and education facility, a physical therapy unit and a soon-to-be-opened pharmacy.

The look of the interior of the building is actually designed to help the mental outlook of students.

For example, Mr. Boyle said that in the older facility, students who were encouraged to seek the mental health services of the university had to walk to another nearby building. Not only were health officials not sure if the students ever went there, but the students also had to face the stigma of being seen walking into a counseling center.

Now that all the facilities and services are under one roof, both of those issues are no longer problems, Mr. Boyle said. Also, the doctors and counselors can also communicate more easily with each other.

“It’s a very advantageous thing for us to be able to walk down the hall and talk to somebody,” said Mr. Boyle, who has been at UT since 2000. “It benefits student health.”

Dr. Victor Barr, director of the counseling center, feels the new setup better reflects current trends.

“It’s the integration of care,” he said. “It’s what is going on in the world where you don’t really separate mental health from health care.”

The building was designed by Design Innovations Architects and Lewis Group Architects of Knoxville and was constructed by Blaine Construction.

Another recently completed and major building on campus now open to students is the $37.5 million Min H. Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building. Located on “the Hill” section of the UT campus just northeast of landmark Ayres Hall, it features 150,000 square feet of space.

It is named for a UT alumnus and chairman of the Garmin company, which makes global positioning system devices. Mr. Kao, who gave a $17.5 million gift for the building, due in part to his admiration for late university professor and adviser Jim Hung, is scheduled to be at UT on March 14 for a special building dedication.

Among the other major construction projects underway on the campus are a new village of sorority houses by Kingston Pike and Alcoa Highway, the Cherokee Farm innovative and research campus on former agriculture school land just across the Tennessee River/Fort Loudoun Lake from the main UT campus, and the Tickle Engineering Building just east of Neyland Stadium off Neyland Drive.

The Tickle building is to replace Estabrook Hall, which is the second oldest building on campus behind South College and is located next to Neyland Stadium. Estabrook was scheduled to be renovated, but it was found to have some structural issues and school officials have not yet decided on its future.

Also under construction is the new Natalie Haslam music building/center diagonally across from the Student Health Center on the site of the former music facility. Mrs. Haslam, a lover of music, is the wife of former UT football player and school benefactor Jim Haslam and stepmother of Gov. Bill Haslam.

The campus rock – which has been painted by students and others thousands of times – now sits on the corner in front of the music building after sitting for years where the Student Health Center now is.

An expansion of the Brehm animal science center near the veterinary school is also taking place.

And work is set to begin soon on the new University Center that will eventually replace the 1950s-era one that has long been a popular gathering point for those attending UT football games. Preliminary infrastructure work on it has already begun.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly for the countless members of the Vol Football Nation in the Chattanooga area, work is continuing on the $45 million Football Training Center adjoining the other football-related facilities near Thompson-Boling Arena. It will be completed by mid-summer.