The Conference Center Building was constructed as the sole Tennessee installation of Atlanta-based Rich’s Department Store in 1955. Stevens & Wilkinson and Raymond Leowy Associates did the design. Stevens & Wilkinson received a merit award from the American Institute of Architecture in 1957 for the building. The building was owned by Rich’s pension fund and leased for the store operation.
Miller’s acquired the lease on the property in 1958, as Rich’s closed the Knoxville location. Hess’s, a unit of Crown American since 1979, bought Miller’s (and gained the lease from Rich’s on the Henley Street location) in 1986.
In 1988 UT solicited proposals to locate a conference center and office space in downtown. Six sites were offered. Three finalist sites were considered: the US Pavilion on the World’s Fair site, the Miller’s Building on Gay Street, and the Hess’s Building. When the Hess’s Building was the successful site, UT asked the state to approve a ten-year lease with Crown American for 171,000 square feet of office and conference space at an annual cost of $756,000. Crown American built out the fourth floor for the Conference Center at a cost of more than $2 million. To accommodate UT hospital administrative functions, UT increased its space holdings to more than 186,000 square feet and the lease payment to $850,500. The Conference Center, State Testing, Municipal Technical Advisory Service, UT Hospital medical records, and some hospital business functions were to occupy the fourth floor, Henley Street level, and tunnel level of the building. The second and third floors contained the Hess’s Department Store operation.
A state audit charged that the UT system Office of Campus Planning and Crown American began negotiations for leasing the space in 1987, although UT did not solicit bids until June 1988; that UT did not accurately evaluate the proposals in its bid analysis; that UT did not outline its space needs until after discussing a lease arrangement with Crown American; and that UT misled the State Building Commission with regard to the State Testing Service space and “knew from the beginning” that the State Testing Service could not afford the space initially assigned. After a variety of charges were investigated and ruled unfounded, UT occupied the facility.
Soon after UT moved in, Crown American closed its Hess’s store. Crown American then worked with Homer Fisher, then UT Knoxville executive vice chancellor, on a proposal for UT to acquire the building. When UT expressed interest, Crown American purchased the facility from Rich’s pension fund to offer it to UT. In March 1992 the board of trustees authorized purchase of the building, the land upon which it was located, the tunnel, and the 330-car garage and warehouse and office structure for $6 million and also authorized $6 million for additional renovation. In 1995 the relocation of more than three hundred people to the Conference Center to occupy the second and third floors was announced.