Apparently, I’ve been hanging around the right places! At last week’s Keep Knoxville Beautiful Orchid Awards, I watched several projects that we’ve featured on Inside of Knoxville over the past year take home top honors.
The 47th annual awards, held Nov. 4 at the Knoxville Museum of Art, recognized some of the best in local architecture, preservation, public art, landscaping and environmental stewardship. For word-count purposes I’m going to focus on downtown and downtown-adjacent winners, with a nod to the rest of this year’s honorees.
I’ve included links to IOK stories where available.
And the Orchids Go To …
Public Art — Celebrating Excellence Statue Series at Covenant Health Park
Spearheaded by the Beck Cultural Exchange Center in partnership with Randy Boyd, Boyd Sports and sculptor Brian Hanlon, the Celebrating Excellence Statue Series honors Knoxville’s Black baseball pioneers and other influential figures. Four additional statues installed in April brought the total to 11.
The jury particularly recognized the importance of telling these stories on land once occupied by The Bottom, a thriving Black neighborhood largely erased by urban renewal. An important bit of history restored to the landscape and hopefully an invitation to learn more about the people who came before us.
Redesign/Reuse — 625 North Broadway
Oh, this one. The former Sanitary Laundry building sat vacant for more than three decades before McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects finally took it on, transforming the deteriorating 1925 industrial building into its stunning new headquarters, with additional tenant spaces.
I toured the building last December and spent an embarrassing amount of time staring at the walls and touching the old brickwork. It’s that good. The 30,000-square-foot restoration retained much of the original industrial character while introducing modern workspaces, abundant natural light, indoor trees and some ambitious sustainability measures. Once on Knox Heritage’s Fragile Fifteen list, it’s now one of the best examples of adaptive reuse in town.
And what a competitive category! Other nominees included Kern’s Food Hall, Tennessee Theatre’s 612 expansion, YWCA Nancy J. Land Center, Mother Bar, Sunsphere Welcome Center, The Gateway, Redeemer Church, Knoxville First Seventh-day Adventist Church and Historic Rule House.
Regreening — Gay Street Bridge North Landing
Who knew a bridge closure could yield a landscaping award? When the Gay Street Bridge reopened to pedestrians and cyclists last December, the City had also reworked its north entrance at Hill Avenue, removing excess asphalt and adding benches, accessible pathways, trees and native plantings.
It’s a huge improvement over the maze of vehicle lanes that preceded it, and makes an already-beloved landmark a much nicer place to linger. The jury praised the City’s decision to prioritize people and green space. More of this, please!
Other nominees were the KUB/Trees Knoxville/KCDC Five Points Tree Planting, Inskip-Norwood Community Center Microforest and Dr. E.V. Davidson Community Center Rooftop Solar Project.
Outdoor Space — Urban Wilderness Gateway Park
The Urban Wilderness Gateway Park has been a long time coming. First envisioned under Mayor Madeline Rogero and carried forward by Mayor Indya Kincannon, the final phase opened in February, transforming that awkward dead end under James White Parkway into a colorful recreational space with a hillside playground, pavilion, restrooms and connections to the Urban Wilderness.
It’s a frequent destination for the kiddo, and the Mayor’s State of the City Address was held there in April. It’s a terrific use of a formerly uninviting space, a proper gateway to the Urban Wilderness indeed.
Other nominees included Third Creek Greenway’s Zig Zag Bridge, 21st Street Plaza, 121 Tech Hub Patio, The Tennessean Hotel’s landscape and entrance, Davis Family YMCA, Hardwicke Park BLOOM Project and Gazebo & Picnic Area Restoration.
Community Project — Dogwood Arts Bazillion Blooms
I’ve had trees on the brain lately (see yesterday’s story), so I was delighted to see Dogwood Arts’ Bazillion Blooms program recognized. Since 2009, the program has helped plant more than 20,000 dogwood trees throughout East Tennessee, offering affordable trees for people to plant at home or donate to community spaces. That’s a whole lot of dogwoods, and a wonderful investment in the next generation’s canopy.
Other nominees were the Karns Branch Library Garden and Vine Middle Magnet School Outdoor Learning Landscape.
New Architecture — The Overlook at Beaumont
KCDC’s Overlook at Beaumont earned the New Architecture Orchid. Opened in January, the 76-apartment mixed-income development is part of the larger Transforming Western initiative. The jury praised its contemporary design, pedestrian-friendly layout and thoughtful integration of affordable housing, which ought to be beautiful, too.
Other nominees included Axle Logistics HQ II, Lone Tree Pass, Covenant Health Park, Liberty Place, UT Medical Nursing Building and 5500 Kingston Pike Retail Store.
Green at Work — UT Office of Sustainability
The UT Office of Sustainability won for its campuswide recycling, composting and waste-reduction efforts, including Zero Waste Game Days at Neyland Stadium. Some 4,000 pounds of food waste are composted per game, and the stadium’s waste-diversion rate is approaching 60%. Consider the sheer volume of discarded concession-stand food and beverages involved here. Good grief.
The other nominee was Smurfit Westrock Knoxville Recycle.
A Few More to Celebrate
The KKB Board also presented several honorary awards, including two more familiar downtown subjects.
City of Knoxville Bright Spot — YWCA Nancy J. Land Center. The century-old downtown YWCA reopened in January following an $11.5 million renovation, preserving its wonderful historic character while increasing supportive housing capacity from 58 to 70 women. I visited during construction and again for the ribbon cutting, and it’s a tremendous accomplishment on every level.
Mary Lou Horner Beautification Award — Emory Place. Awarded to a previous Orchid winner that has continued to thrive, this year’s honor went to Emory Place, where historic buildings are finding new life and KnoxWalls has transformed an alley into a gallery of 12 large-scale murals.
The Knox County Bright Spot went to Hardwicke Park BLOOM Project for its native pollinator habitat and improved pedestrian connections, while the Knox County Schools Bright Spot honored West High School students for a colorful street-safety mural created in partnership with the City’s Vision Zero initiative.
The Felicia Award, recognizing outstanding environmental stewardship, went to Knox County Sheriff’s Office Captain Tom Walker for his work investigating illegal dumping and environmental crimes. Walker was nominated by the late former Knox County Commissioner Carson Dailey, himself a previous Felicia Award recipient.
KKB also renamed its Volunteer of the Year Award in Dailey’s memory, with Reese Coker becoming the first recipient of the Carson Dailey Volunteer of the Year Award. Reese and her husband Jack are THE BEST; thank you for all you do in our community! The All Saints Creation Care Team earned Adopt-A-Road Group of the Year, and EnSafe was named Adopt-A-Stream Group of the Year.
In between award-givings, we were treated to four fast-moving PechaKucha-style presentations from folks and organizations who are doing the dirty work to keep our community clean and beautiful. Speakers included Travis Maryanski and Andy Sweeney of WM, Knoxville Re-Animation Coalition President George Kemp, Lonsdale Elementary Principal Will Smith and UT student Aderynna Silavong.
George’s work preserving historic Black cemeteries reminded me of an experience earlier this year. My son and I joined KKB and Knox Heritage for a cleanup at Longview Cemetery in West View, one of three adjoining African American cemeteries that have suffered decades of abandonment and illegal dumping. I was struck by how many people showed up on a Saturday morning to pick up trash, and how much headway we made on a seemingly overwhelming job simply by working together.
KKB is awfully good at getting people to show up! By early November, some 6,000 KKB volunteers had collected 86,000 pounds of litter, completed 14 beautification projects and contributed more than 15,000 hours of service in 2026. That’s a staggering amount of trash AND generosity.
And they’re always looking for more hands. KKB’s next Saturday Spruce Up is Nov. 14 at W. Depot Avenue downtown, with volunteer opportunities available year-round. You can also donate to support the organization’s cleanup, education, recycling and beautification programs.
Coming up on February 5, 2027, KKB’s annual Summit will focus on the circular economy — reducing waste by keeping materials in use through reuse, repair and recycling. And speaking of PechaKucha presentations, the next PechaKucha Night Knoxville is this Thursday, Nov. 12 at The Mill & Mine.
Congratulations to this year’s Orchid winners and nominees, and to everyone who spends their time making Knoxville a nicer place to live!
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