Ground was broken December 1, 2009, for the John D. Tickle Engineering Building, a five-story, 110,000-square-foot building named for John Tickle, president and owner of Strongwell Corporation and a 1965 alumnus of the college. Tickle and his wife, Ann, provided significant funding for the building. His company, Strongwell, provided fiberglass-reinforced large I-beams for the bridge that links the building to the Hill.
Additional funding from the State of Tennessee and the chancellor’s office, as well as gifts from UT Knoxville alumni Chad and Ann Holliday, Jim Gibson, and Eric Zeanah created the public-private partnership that made the building possible. The building was designed to house the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Industrial and Systems Engineering Departments. Civil and Environmental Engineering occupied the first through fourth floors, and Industrial and Systems Engineering occupied the fifth floor.
First floor features of the building included a geotech lab, undergraduate instructional labs, and a large bay with a high entrance for structural testing. A crane installation of two 10-ton cranes allowed structures up to 20 tons to be tested. A state-of-the-art facility for testing asphalt durability was also included on the first floor.
Second floor features included hydraulics and structural instruction labs and all undergraduate instructional labs. The third floor provided office space for civil and environmental engineering and for a senior design lab. Classrooms, a small auditorium, seminar rooms, and additional office space occupied the fourth floor.
The fifth floor space of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department provided office space and five research laboratories.
Construction on the building began in January 2011, and dedication ceremonies were held October 4, 2013. Students and faculty moved into the building for fall semester 2013.
Architects for the $23.1 million facility were Grieve and Associates of Knoxville, working with three engineering firms: Cannon & Cannon Inc. and I. C. Thomasson Associates Inc. of Knoxville, and Ross Bryan Associates Inc. of Nashville. Messer Construction of Knoxville was the general contractor.