World's Fair Park is an inviting urban greenscape, but many Knoxvillians aren't sure the space lives up to its potential.

World's Fair Park is inarguably a prominent and appealing feature of downtown Knoxville. The gleaming Sunsphere stands 266 feet tall. There is an architecturally pleasing amphitheater that can seat 1,000. The large park has two expansive public lawns, one of 125,000 square feet that can seat 6,000 and one of 60,000 square feet that can seat 4,000. There are acres of flowers, water fountains, a meandering urban stream with cascading waterfalls.

All in all, World's Fair Park is an inviting urban greenscape equally well suited for large public events or quiet personal reflection. It is big enough to hold crowds an individual can gratefully become one with or, just as gratefully, find solitude in its nooks and crannies and broad expanses.

I daresay most Knoxvillians love their World's Fair Park. It has many die-hard fans who use it on a regular basis or attend one of the increasing number of special events held there. Still, others aren't sure it lives up to its potential for either Knoxville residents or for drawing visitors to the city. And there are inherent difficulties with the park that make additional development a bit troublesome, mostly having to do with its edge-of-downtown location across the Great Henley Street Divide.

Whatever your take on the present and future of the World's Fair Park it seems new ideas and synergies have been gathering in recent years and are beginning to coalesce in and around Knoxville's grandest downtown park.

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Consider the realities:

The Sunsphere shines brighter than it has in years and draws more time and attention from visitors and residents since reopening in 2007 following significant renovation. The iconic structure of the 1982 World's Fair now features an air-conditioned observation deck and a small bar and restaurant.

A new 4,150-square-foot children's playground on the north lawn of the park near the popular water fountains offers kids a safer play environment than does its old all-wooden Fort Kid predecessor and is no doubt at least as much fun.

Late last year the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial opened on the north end of World's Fair Park.

The Tennessee Amphitheater looks better since the city stabilized the structure and cleaned it up a few years ago, though at least several million dollars would be needed to sufficiently renovate it for superior concert-quality status.

The World's Fair Park has become one of the city's prime locations for many of its biggest annual public celebrations, some featuring concerts and fireworks. The Festival on the Fourth, Big Orange Blast, Knox County Library's Children's Festival of Reading, Cinco de Mayo Festival and this month's Knoxville Brewers' Jam are among the most popular festivals held in the city, some drawing tens of thousands of area celebrants and most, perhaps all, drawing more every year.

In many ways, World's Fair Park has come to be the metaphoric, if not geographic, heart of the city for public expression of support, grief and hope. In addition to the veterans memorial, the park is the site of commemorative events such as those honoring law enforcement officers who have died. It was the site for Knoxville Unity Day, where the city came together in grief following the murders at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. On a more hopeful note, the park is the staging site for numerous awareness- and fund-raising events like the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, MS Walk, the Run for the Schools and this month's Komen Race for the Cure, among others, and for commemorative events recognizing academic achievement.

"It is a key asset for the city," says William Lyons, senior director of policy and communications with the city of Knoxville, of World's Fair Park. "It connects the university to downtown. It gets a lot of use as a park, as a place for people to gather and as a place to hold events. Just in the last few years we've seen the renovation of the Sunsphere, the amphitheater, the playground and the veteran's memorial. That speaks to the city's interest in it."

Additional interest in the park has been demonstrated and aroused by recent announcements of several potential near-future developments at the park site.

Consider the possibilities:

Lawson McGhee Library Relocation?

Knox County Public Library Foundation members have floated a proposal for a new $40 million downtown library. Several sites are being considered including one in and beside the L&N Station on the World's Fair Park site.

According to Ginna Mashburn, co-chair of the Knox County Public Library Foundation, the World's Fair Park option envisions the old railroad depot being used for administrative offices, a reading room and information technology. Part of The Butcher Shop building would be used as a children's library and a new building would be constructed in between the two to hold the main library stacks, connected to each by walkways. The plan calls for nearly doubling the terribly cramped space currently available at the 70,000-square-foot Lawson McGhee facility. "I believe we have just been approved by the Knoxville Community Design Center for them to have a feasibility study done comparing two or three pieces of property," says Mashburn. "The L&N is one of those."

Mashburn, an ex-Webb English teacher and lifelong library lover, doesn't hide her enthusiasm for the World's Fair Park site. "I love the idea of the World's Fair Park, of salvaging the L&N buildings. I think it would be a brilliant space for us. The problem of course is money."

Mashburn indicates the Knoxville Community Design Center study will likely take at least three months and that the library relocation project, whether to World's Fair Park or elsewhere, will probably take three to five years to become realized.

Knoxville Museum of Art Connection?

The Knoxville Museum of Art recently announced it has worked with Boston-based design firm Sasaki to create a comprehensive vision for potential expansion that would include a two- or three-story entry wing and a pedestrian bridge that would allow easier access to World's Fair Park for museum visitors.

The ambitious "vision plan," which which is preliminary and purely conceptual at this point, imagines incorporating renovation not only of museum property but also of adjacent city property. Sasaki's plan suggests a Children's Garden, a new sculptural park, a visitor center and an amphitheater with seating for up to 5,000 people. The North Garden area would offer an outdoor sculpture court with cafŽ seating and the South Garden an event space with seating for 500.

The speculative plan also calls for a new Artist's Village with residences and studios across World's Fair Park Drive.

"The overall idea, which might take years to be realized, is to get a better connection to the neighborhoods around us, to make it more accessible by foot and by automobile, to make the whole site greener, literally and metaphorically, and to put the museum at the center of a bustling pedestrian area," explains David Butler, executive director of the Knoxville Museum of Art. "Sasaki thought of us not in isolation but as part of the urban fabric. The pedestrian bridge, for instance, connects a green parking lot on the hill above toward Fort Sanders to World's Fair Park below."

Butler says KMA, which is not funded by the city or county, has been talking with city administrators about partnering with the museum on some of the infrastructure needs that KMA simply can't handle on its own.

An aerial view showing proposed plans for World's Fair Park

"We've had several very positive conversations with the city about the pedestrian connection," says Butler. "They recognize the need for a pedestrian connection at that point. The parking is all up on the hill where we are and the park is down the hill and across a railroad track. You can't get there without walking all the way around to the L&N and then back to the park."

Butler is careful to reiterate that the art museum proposal is speculative and that no funds have been secured to make it a reality. KMA hasn't yet had a phased cost analysis done for its plan, but it's safe to say the price tag for each of the major elements would be in the millions of dollars. In any case, he's hopeful about the future development of both the museum and World's Fair Park.

East Tennessee Discovery Center Move?

The East Tennessee Discovery Center is currently located in a cramped corner of an old building at Chilhowee Park, well out from the city's center, but the organization's administrators have long had hopes of establishing a larger and more elaborate children's museum downtown. The problem has always been a shortage of funds.

For many years, ETDC board members eyed the Candy Factory as the facility's best downtown bet, but that changed when the city sold the cherished building a few years ago to Chattanooga-based Kinsey, Probasco, Hays & Associates. Since then, ETDC board members have been discussing with the mayor and with city council members the possibility of moving into the Knoxville Convention and Exhibition Center, the older, smaller convention center originally built for the World's Fair that sits on the east side of the fair site. No decisions have thus far been made, and as with the other World's Fair site project proposals funding has yet to be secured.

The Henley Street Divide

Perhaps the most formidable barriers to increased use of World's Fair Park and any additional public or private development there are what is perceived as its "outskirts" location and the wide asphalt strip of motorized mayhem known as Henley Street. Crossing Henley can be a disconcerting experience, and it seems many people either don't notice the pedestrian bridge at Clinch Avenue or don't find it convenient to use.

"We've had a little bit of pushback from downtown folks who recognize the problems with good access across Henley," acknowledges Mashburn, in regards to the possibility of relocating the library in the park. "We understand that that's something that would have to be addressed."

Yet Fire Street Lofts resident Blake Valentine, vice president of City People, an organization of downtown residents and business owners, doesn't think it's a big concern for downtowners. "I don't think downtown residents are intimidated by crossing Henley," he says.

Still, such pedestrian bravado may be in short supply for visitors to the city or even for Knoxvillians who haven't built up their nerve with frequent gallivanting about on downtown's busy streets.

The Henley Street divide wreaks havoc in both directions of course. Not only does it make it more difficult to get to World's Fair Park from the downtown core but also decreases the odds park visitors will cross over on foot for food or other goods and services once they're comfortably ensconced at the park.

It is a little less than a half-mile from World's Fair Park to Market Square. That's not very far, but given the sometimes steep grades of street or stairway to and from the park and the formidable HENLEY it can seem too daunting a distance for some.

Another speculative downtown venture might help alleviate a little of the vexing Henley Street problem if it comes to fruition. Included in the plans for the Metropolitan Plaza project, a proposed hotel-office-retail-condo complex at the site of the State Supreme Court Building at Locust and Henley, is a second pedestrian bridge across Henley Street.

World's Fair Park vs. Market Square?

There has been talk recently that Market Square's marquee event, Sundown in the City, may have outgrown the Square's relatively small space and should be moved to World's Fair Park. That has some downtown business owners worried about losing the spillover business activity they typically enjoy when special events are on Market Square.

On the other hand, some Market Square retailers and residents have complained about disruptive delivery trucks and noise associated with the Square's special events. Some retailers even close during Sundown rather than risk the shoplifting and crowd control issues that accompany it. And for those attending Sundown, the typically elbow-to-elbow crowds can greatly diminish enjoyment of the event.

Still, the Market Square District Association hasn't given up on Sundown and it's doubtful Gay Street retailers will want to see it move.

"I'm not convinced downtown would recoup that lost revenue," says Valentine. "People who go to World's Fair Park are going to buy hotdogs and hamburgers and then they're going to go home. There aren't a lot of businesses Ð restaurants and bars, particularly Ð that bridge the gap from Market Square to World's Fair Park. The challenge of bringing more people to World's Fair Park is connecting it to the UT campus, which they're doing, and connecting it to downtown better by creating retail corridors that lead from Gay Street to World's Fair Park."

Valentine thinks all business owners in the central downtown corridor should be surveyed before moving Sundown, though he says he'll support Sundown in the City wherever it is. That perspective is generally shared by Ashley Capps, whose AC Entertainment produces Sundown for Market Square. "We're always in dialogue with the business owners and property owners in the city about Market Square and Sundown in the City," notes Capps. "We've considered moving it for quite some time, but I don't think that's solely our decision to make. Sundown in the City has become a community event. I think we'll be sitting down with the Market Square District Association and with the city as we do every year and discussing whether Sundown has outgrown its current location. We'll hear what everyone has to say."

Capps has staged a handful of concerts at World's Fair Park in the past few years and re-launched the Hot Summer Nights concert series this year. The series ran with great success in the 1990s until curtailed by construction of the Knoxville Convention Center.

"We're looking at maybe stepping it up just a little bit," says Capps of concerts at World's Fair Park. "It's a great venue and a great gathering place for people and a fun place to hang out."

Comprehensive Plan?

The city has demonstrated a clear commitment to World's Fair Park, which is owned by the city and managed by the Public Building Authority, a joint city/county operation. It was one key element of Mayor Haslam's downtown development efforts, and his administration has budgeted $1.5-$1.8 million for operations and promotion of the park for the past several years. The sale of the Candy Factory and the Victorian Houses produced funds dedicated to renovation of the park.

Despite the city's ongoing commitment, however, city administrator Lyons concedes there is no comprehensive plan for its future development. Mashburn and Butler see this as something sorely lacking.

"I think there's a crying need for one comprehensive plan, not just for the park but for all the entities that border on the park," says Butler. "It has some beautiful pieces, but I don't think anyone has thought about how everything connects Ñ where you walk, how you get to the park, what you do when you get there."

Mashburn is of like mind. "I think all of us who have looked at this know there needs to be more amenities down there, maybe some restaurants, maybe some retail, certainly public facilities better than what is currently down there," say Mashburn. "Knoxville needs to look at that property as a whole. It needs to be done in a holistic way and not just as certain possibilities arise."