Christenberry Elementary School

Knoxville, TN 

1st Place TSBA School of the Year Award Winner – 1997 Elementary School New Construction

Features included 38 full-size classrooms and 2 auxiliary classrooms (28 are grade specific and 10 others are assigned to CDC, Resource, and miscellaneous purposes). Other spaces included an art room with a kiln, a music room, a media center, and a 250-seat little theater. A commons area serves as a gathering space as well as providing seating for food service.

The building was constructed on the same site after the demolition of the older building. The overall aesthetic consideration was to preserve the residential character of the neighborhood and retain the comfortable scale established by the earlier building. This was accomplished by utilizing a single story structure along the main street elevation, the retention of an entrance into the building where the original main entrance had been, use of a sloped roof reflecting the first building, and the use of various brick details, including arched entries and a bay window, which were similar to those in the older structure.