An artist's rendering of the new aquarium expanxion. Click to enlarge.
Mayor Bob Corker joined the staff of the Tennessee Aquarium at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new 60,000 sq. feet, $30 million facility Thursday.
Aquarium President Charles Arant called the new building the logical extension of the aquarium’s current facility. “(The current building) tells the story of the river,” Mr. Arant said. “This new building will tell the story of the sea.”
The new building will expand the aquarium’s Gulf of Mexico Exhibit, with a new exhibit eight times the size of the aquarium’s current gulf display.
“It will continue to be world class,” Mr. Arant said. “Not only as entertainment, but as an educational experience.”
The aquarium plays a vital role in the Chattanooga’s downtown area, Mr. Arant said. “It’s kind of been the centerpiece.”
Mr. Arant is not sure a new facility will cause more visitors to come to Chattanooga, but “we certainly hope so,” he said.
The new building, due to be finished in the spring of 2005, is a major part of the 21st century waterfront plan, said Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker. The waterfront plan is scheduled to be finished in May 2005.
Mr. Corker called the Tennessee Aquarium the engine that drives downtown development, and said that the new building will be central to any new development on the Riverfront. “Once the aquarium opened 11 years ago the things that came after that were truly remarkable,” he said.
"There’s more Chattanooga-envy in Knoxville and Nashville than you can imagine,” he said.
The model for the new building was designed by the Boston-based firm of Chermayeff, Sollogub and Poole, Inc., the firm that helped design the first Tennessee Aquarium building in 1992.
Students from the first grade class of Normal Park Elementary equipped with buckets were the official groundbreakers at the ceremony.