Centro Hispano

Centro Hispano | Community & Workplace Design

Site: 615 N Central St, Knoxville, TN 37917

Studio: second year interior architecture studio instructed by German Valenzuela

Year: Spring 2023

Programs: Revit, Enscape, Illustrator, Photoshop

This project explores adaptive reuse as a means of blending cultures and linking with the city of Knoxville to best serve the interests and purpose of Centro Hispano de East Tennessee. The design was organized by a system of stacked programs that are public rentable spaces to bring the city of Knoxville into the doors of Centro’s building. The programs within the building include classrooms, social gathering spaces, the kitchen hub, children’s rooms, office spaces, and a courtyard for outdoor activities.

Client

Centro Hispano de East Tennessee is the community resource center for the latino community in Knoxville. Their mission is to "promote empowerment and civic participation through education, workforce development, youth and family engagement, and community-strengthening initiatives.

Working with Centro Hispano as our client, we consulted with Claudia Caballero, the president and CEO of Centro Hispano throughout the whole design process.

Program

As a growing community, Claudia expressed Centro's need for:

Classrooms
Offices
Kitchen
Children's Care
Community Gathering Space
Outdoor Community Space

Site

The site is right in the heart of Knoxville, with lots of neighboring stores, cafes, breweries, and businesses. This creates the perfect opportunity to knit Centro Hispano into the fabric of the city. With the large amount of square footage, half of the building will be rentable space to bring the community within the walls of Centro’s community hub.

Historic Renovation

The site was built in 1859 and was among the first commercial buildings built in what is now called Emory Place. During the 1920s the building was home to Dempster Construction Co. and Motor Co, owned by former Mayor, George Dempster.

As an ode to the history of the building and its impact on the city, the renovation of this building is designed to reference the original facade of the Dempster building. In an effort to engage with the street, the courtyard is redesigned as a nice greenspace that draws people in the doors of the building.

Community Engagement

TThe building is divided in half for zones of public use and private use. The southern (orange) portion of the building will be designated to Centro’s programs. Meanwhile, the northern (blue) portion of the building will become rentable spaces for pop-up market on the first floor and unprogrammed space on the second floor.

By creating a moment of intersection at the center of the building, boundaries of the designated zones begin to blur creating the opportunity for people to mingle in passing and the latino community to be woven into the Knoxville community.

Spatial Arrangement

First Floor Plan - Classrooms & Community Space

Second Floor Plan - Workspace

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