The university leased the Jewel, a building at 525 N. Gay Street, to be used as a design studio and fabrication facility in March 2014. The art-deco storefront of the building became studio and exhibit space for architecture and design students, with two floors of industrial space in the back replacing space formerly rented in a West Knoxville warehouse for materials storage, fabrication, and use of high-tech tools such as 3-D printers and robots.