Newport Innovation Center

The Cocke County School System committed to a middle school career & technical education (CTE) center to serve the entire county, while simultaneously revitalizing a partially vacant and mostly underutilized retail center at a visibly prominent location only about a mile from downtown Newport, Tennessee.

At the larger scale, the goal for the former retail center was to utilize the former ‘big box’ anchor store for the CTE program, while the retail center’s former grocery store would be converted into consolidated government offices for Cocke County. This innovative model created by the school system allows middle school students from across the county to be introduced to various career and technical programs prior to high school.

On the exterior, with budget in mind the focus was creating a new identity for both the school’s Innovation Center and the County government offices.

On the interior, the Owner’s request for a colorful and stimulating learning environment for middle schoolers was developed as an organizational and wayfinding strategy: Orange for STEM, blue for health sciences, and green for agricultural. Those colors come together in shared and public spaces to complete the interior composition. A large commons area is an orienting space which can double as a multi-purpose event space, and large classroom spaces provide flexibility for different modes of instruction. A Career Exploration Center and CTE Activity Area further introduce students to career and technical opportunities with information and equipment simulators.