ETCDC Celebration of Design: A Toast to 55 Years of Volunteer Impact

For 55 years, the East Tennessee Community Design Center (ETCDC) has run on a simple engine: generous people giving their time and talent so great ideas can find their footing. On Wednesday, the annual Celebration of Design doubles as a birthday party with a very specific guest of honor: volunteers — past, present and future.

“This year we honor the heart of our organization, our volunteers,” says Executive Director Duane Grieve. “We would not be who we are without them.”

The Celebration takes place Wednesday, Oct. 15, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum (2743 Wimpole Ave.). Expect heavy hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and an art auction all in honor of the volunteers who’ve made the last 55 years possible. 

If you’re not familiar with ETCDC, it’s a nonprofit that connects professional designers and planners with nonprofits and community groups who have vision but not the budget to hire a firm. Through ETCDC, they get access to pro bono support from local architects, landscape architects, engineers and allied professionals who help them develop the concepts and visuals they need to raise funds and move projects forward. 

Projects that got their start with ETCDC are all around us. More than 1,300 projects across 16 counties have been made possible by over 120,000 documented volunteer hours (and likely many more—volunteers aren’t exactly famous for turning in timesheets).

“That speaks well of the design community here,” Grieve says. “For 55 years, volunteers have stepped up to serve.”

ETCDC was envisioned in 1969 when Bruce McCarty, then the president of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), visited the Community Design Center in Philadelphia. He returned to pitch the idea to 40 local professionals that Knoxville too was in need of a community design center.

Today, ETCDC holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating design center of its kind in the country, and the work hasn’t slowed down one bit. Projects are now queued months ahead while local design firms juggle record workloads — yet, they still take the time to volunteer. Through its DesignWorks process, ETCDC vets proposals, matches them with volunteers, and helps ideas take shape. Often, those same volunteers end up becoming the nonprofit’s hired designer when it’s time to build.

The organization also leads broader initiatives, including the Community Collaborative, an input collation system I wrote about a couple months ago when the public was invited to imagine the future of two properties: Knox Central (1000 N. Central St.) and Knox County Schools Maintenance & Operations (900 E. Fifth Ave.). It’s the kind of collective visioning work that puts ETCDC at the table for some of Knoxville’s most meaningful conversations about its future.

But Grieve says his goal as executive director has been to protect and elevate ETCDC’s founding mission. “That’s not to say we can’t branch out into other areas,” he says, “but the core value of the Design Center is, and always has been, to assist and help other nonprofits. I think that’s what’s made us successful.”

Full disclosure: I’m on the ETCDC Board of Directors, not because I’m in the design world (although I obviously really believe in their mission), but because I can occasionally be useful with communications and public awareness. The organization has never been great at tooting its own horn. I didn’t realize the extent of its influence until a few years back; now, it’s hard to not see ETCDC’s fingerprints everywhere. It’s also been humbling to witness how much generosity and quiet collaboration exists within Knoxville’s design community. These are good humans, drawn to the work because they genuinely care about making this a better place to live. 

Not sad to see that this city model didn’t come to fruition, tho:

A new video produced by Cameron Johnson of Novalance Productions will be debuting at the Celebration of Design this Wednesday. Stitched together from short interviews with a dozen volunteers, it captures the spirit of the organization, concluding with a series of one-word bursts that say it all: rewarding. creative. collaborative. uplifting. fulfilling. “I love how it brings their voices together,” Grieve says. “We really are fortunate.”

Get your Celebration tickets today. 

And now, a little vintage ETCDC photo dump. I didn’t put much effort into captions, but some of our longtime readers may enjoy the trip down memory lane.