One of Knoxville's most unique fun facts is that part of Gay Street, downtown's main drag, is hidden underground. Now, an equally unique venue is making that semi-secret subterranean setting its home.
The Furnace, slated to open in spring 2027, will be unlike anything else in Knoxville.
Below the Emporium on the 100 block of Gay Street, the historic building's former furnace room is being transformed into an immersive space that will use projected image and video elements to engage visitors in totally new ways.
The approximately 145-person venue has a blank-slate, easily moveable setup that's designed to accommodate many uses − but Liza Zenni, executive director of Knoxville's Arts and Culture Alliance, which operates the Emporium, already has a few
ideas.
Imagine the immersive Van Gogh exhibit that's been touring the globe. But at the Furnace, instead of Van Gogh's paintings, you could step inside imagery created by a Knoxville artist. Or picture an intimate wedding ceremony with guests surrounded by a digital expanse of flowers.
The list goes on: a play whose scenery comes to life like no other; an educational field trip that brings students inside the human body to learn about anatomy; a history lecture that transports attendees to the version of Gay Street that existed a century ago.
The Furnace represents a wild part of Knoxville history
The addition of the Furnace to downtown is set to be a major boost for Knoxville. It adds a new experience for locals and visitors alike, and it offers artists a previously unavailable opportunity to create and showcase their work. Plus, it fills in the "kind of missing tooth" between Gay Street and the Old City that was considered unsafe and unattractive in years prior, Zenni said.
Not to mention it's in a little chunk of infrastructure that has a wildly fascinating history. More than a century ago, the "death dip" was a deep depression between downtown Knoxville and the railroad tracks. Gay Street sloped steeply down, while bridges over the rail yards rose sharply upward. The result was almost like a roller coaster, historian Jack Neely once told Knox News, but a lot less safe than the kind you'd find at a theme park today.
As a fix, Knoxville opted to build up Gay Street an entire level, shifting the first floors of buildings below ground. In the case of the Emporium, the entryway went underneath the street. For years, the area under the building was really a furnace, with coal chutes and everything. It's a history to which the new venue will pay homage in more ways than one.
In 2006, the space beneath the Emporium was transformed into a rehearsal space called The Annex. In 2020, the coal chutes that once gave it purpose destroyed its new one. Stormwater poured in through the openings and put an end to the Annex, but the disaster ushered in the possibility of something new.
Under Gay Street, the venue is coming to life
The chutes are now sealed, and the lights installed inside make them glow. A decorative piece sculpted by Derek White, owner and founder of Bird on a Wire Studios, features smoked glass and is a visual nod to a literal furnace, another reference to the space's fiery, industrial past.
Right now, the venue is a work in progress, but 90% of the needed funds have been accounted for so far, with support from the city, county and state, as well as from the Downtown Knoxville Alliance and Visit Knoxville. Zenni said she expects the final total to fall somewhere around $4.8 million.
There are other cool features already present. The main event room boasts a sprung wood floor − ideal for dance − along with moveable wall panels that can be used to reconfigure the layout. Also nearing completion is a prep kitchen and dressing rooms, the latter of which are already showing their personality with funky antique furniture.
What else can visitors expect at the Furnace?
Still to come are finishing touches to the outside, which will include a laser-cut Trespa exterior that will show off the venue's glowing inside when it's open − almost like fire, Zenni said.
Then there's the bars, also crafted by White: three moveable bar carts, with one for the covered outside directly under the viaduct − which serves as a sort of lobby − and two inside.
And finally, the venue is still waiting on the equipment that will allow it to do what it's been created to do. That will be the linchpin that takes it from a midsized performance center to a totally distinctive and transportive art space. And the latter has always been the primary goal.
"We have wonderful black box theaters in town. We have wonderful theaters in town. We have wonderful event spaces in town," Zenni said. "This is different in that it is the only space (where) you come in, and you're completely surrounded by these images."
The Furnace is slated to begin welcoming guests in spring 2027.
Hayden Dunbar Evans is the storyteller reporter. Email: hayden.dunbar@knoxnews.com. Instagram: @knoxstoryteller.
Support strong local journalism by subscribing at subscribe.knoxnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Under Gay Street, an immersive art venue and event space is in the works
