University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Veterinary Medicine

The Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) is an addition to the University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center that will provide much needed instructional and informal gathering space for the UT Institute of Agriculture’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

The addition contains four instructional spaces geared toward various pedagogies: two toward pathology/parasitology instructional labs, one toward large lectures, and one toward a clinical skills simulation laboratory.

The backbone of the addition is the “concourse” that provides circulation not only to the exterior, but also to the existing Veterinary Medical Center.

It contains intermittent lounge and café furniture for studying and fellowship, and is marked by plentiful natural light (which travels to the instructional spaces via considerable interior glazing).

The exterior massing is largely a function of a slender site as well as an effort to bring natural light into the existing building. The material palette uses what is historically familiar to the campus (Indiana limestone, dark metals, and terracotta), but employs terracotta in a fashion that is novel (i.e. as a vertical rain-screen instead of high-pitch roofing).
Connection to the landscape is a hallmark of the UT Institute of Agriculture, so the project includes an open-air terrace (partially roofed in a “halo” configuration), storm-water infiltration swales and weirs, and limited accommodations for a future vegetated roof.

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