Recently during a lunch and learn, a representative asked our staff if we enjoyed our office being downtown. Our response was quick and unanimous, yes! It may seem like a no brainer to us, but maybe we can shed some light on why we like our little home sweet home.
First and foremost, we love the energy that comes with being downtown. Knoxville is pretty busy during the work week. With a variety of businesses and restaurants, downtown is a bustling place as people do their jobs. We work with many of these businesses on a day-to-day basis. Consultants like engineers, landscape architects, and other architecture firms are often just around the corner or a short walk away. We are also in close proximity to code and official offices, which makes delivering drawings and reviewing sets pretty quick and convenient.
We also love supporting other local downtown businesses that aren’t in our realm of design world. As often as we can, we enjoy supporting restaurants and vendors nearby. Our lunch and learns are often catered by a local restaurant that gets our vote every time! Even our drawings are often printed at the local print shop, Lellyett & Rodgers.
Not only do we like to work downtown, we also like to live downtown. All of our employees live in the downtown community or in neighborhoods in close proximity. This makes commuting to work easy! Many of us bike, walk, and carpool to work. These are great ways to enjoy the day when you’re not yet in the office or on the way home.
There are also great opportunities for “play” when it comes to being downtown. For most of the year we have the Farmer’s Market in Market Square that is open TWICE a week! (Both on Wednesday and Saturday). We love to go shopping for farm fresh goodies and maybe fresh baked cookies too. There are often festivals and different events planned for Krutch Park across from our office and that energy usually keeps us on our toes throughout the day. And we can’t forget the parades that often grace Gay Street! Most parades go right by our office and our windows are great for viewing!
All in all, downtown is pretty great place to be right now. Knoxville seems to have caught the bug and who knows where we’ll end up. But we know one thing for sure, EEA is excited to be along for the ride!