Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
The Baker Creek Preserve Pavilion by Sanders Pace Architecture for City of Knoxville is a small-scale project with a significant impact, positioned where Knoxville’s urban expansion meets its “Urban Wilderness”—a connected network of green spaces and trails designed to reconnect the city equitably through collaboration among city leaders, local groups, and residents.
The Baker Creek Preserve Pavilion won an American Architecture Award 2025 from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
After years of conflict, Knoxville’s mayor and land conservation and cycling advocates successfully stopped the extension of the James White Parkway, a highway that would have fractured key preserves within the Urban Wilderness. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) agreed to hand over the highway’s terminus to the city, which envisioned transforming the “Highway to Nowhere” into a celebrated natural gateway honoring the protected lands.
A multidisciplinary planning team was chosen to create a phased extension plan for the Baker Creek Preserve to the former highway terminus. They proposed a bolder vision: converting the James White Parkway—a road originally built to speed traffic out of downtown—into a greenway linking the city center to the Urban Wilderness. This innovative reuse of existing infrastructure received strong city support.
The architect involved in the planning was then hired to design the Baker Creek Preserve Pavilion, intended as a vital starting point for Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness initiative. The pavilion aimed to raise the Urban Wilderness’s profile as a top destination locally, regionally, and nationally, supporting the Baker Creek Preserve’s goal of becoming a premier mountain biking skills park and trail system.
The project addressed growing demand for outdoor venues and mountain biking festivals by providing key infrastructure. It also aimed to serve South Knoxville’s economically disadvantaged community by creating a welcoming outdoor “third space” for cultural and recreational activities. Additionally, the pavilion supports the everyday needs of mountain bikers. All of this was achieved within a $2.66 million budget covering the pavilion and site improvements.
Deep community engagement was central to the project, with the architect collaborating with the city, activists, and residents through small group meetings and a major community workshop held onsite. Feedback emphasized safety and neighborhood connection, inspiring an architectural design that is bold yet porous, allowing clear views through the structure.
The pavilion’s design draws inspiration from the fluid shapes of nearby mountain biking pump tracks. It features a curved plan dividing the space into two zones: gathering and wayfinding, and restroom support. The building’s form flows continuously from one surface to another, enhanced by a shading system of taut, parabolic woven PVC fabric panels. A striking cantilevered structure offers unobstructed views of a community lawn, perfect for larger gatherings and festivals.
Design development combined physical and digital modeling, with digital templates guiding fabricators and construction teams to realize the complex curvilinear and parabolic geometries.
Materials reflect a blend of Knoxville’s industrial past and natural environment. The Corten steel framework and skin promise durability as it weathers naturally over time, while the lightweight frame and perforated corrugated sheathing promote openness and transparency.
Today, the Baker Creek Preserve Pavilion regularly hosts local events and mountain biking tourists worldwide. As a catalytic project, it demonstrates the transformative power of grassroots efforts, visionary leadership, and bold design in advancing Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness and citywide connectivity goals.
Architects: Sanders Pace Architecture
Design Team: Brandon Pace, John Sanders, Daniel Jones, Michael Aktalay, Keith Kaseman, and Alec Persch
General Contractor: Design & Construction Services, Inc. (DSCI)
Client: City of Knoxville
Photographers: Keith Isaacs Photography
