Daylight Building

The Daylight Building is an art-deco styled three-story building built in 1927 by Benjamin Sprankle in downtown Knoxville just one block away from market square. It's named by the "Daylight Building" because of its design to allow natural light to illuminate the interior. It also features a glass clerestory on the roof which allows for natural light to enter the core of the building. Initially, the building provided retail space on the ground floor and office space on the second floor and by 1934 it primarily housed TVA engineers and internal agency services. TVA continued to use the space into the 1980s until their office tower was constructed north of market square in 1976. Once TVA had completed their transition into their new office building, the Daylight building sat vacant for about 15 years until a property developer bought it and started redeveloping it into a mixed-use facility with retail space on the ground floor featuring Union Ave Books, Cruze Farm Milk Bar, JC Holdways, Coldstream Market, and Wild Lavender Spa and Wellness. The second floor and garden level was converted for residential units of 1 and 2 bedrooms. Most of the restored building still has the same features of when it was first built and occupied. I chose this place because I am always so fascinated with the design of the building itself - it doesn't really match the other architecture downtown and the giant windows make it seem so happy inside the stores all the time. I also really like the big trees along Union Avenue that seem to brighten up a small strip of land in the barren, concrete downtown so I like walking by the building even if I'm not going to stop inside Union Ave Books (but you should totally check it out - Buy local!).