Ayres Hall is a central iconic and historic landmark building at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

(UT) in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

. The building was designed by Miller, Fullenwider and Dowling of Chicago, and completed in 1921. It is named for

Brown Ayres Brown Ayres (May 25, 1856 – January 28, 1919) was an American educator and academic administrator. He was the president of the University of Tennessee and the acting president, dean, and physics professor of Tulane University. Early life Br ...

(1856–1919), the university's 12th president from 1904 to 1909. An extensive restoration began in the fall of 2008 and ended in January 2011. The renovations included central air conditioning and heating,

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...

floors and benches,

face The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect th ...

s for the tower's four clocks, refurbished classroom furnishings, such as chairs, tables, and

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

chalkboard A blackboard or a chalkboard is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, better known as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of smooth, thin sheets of black or da ...

s, and stairways, and a north courtyard. The faces for the clocks and the terrazzo floors were in the original designs, but had never been installed due to costs. The north courtyard, which faces Cumberland Avenue, was never implemented in the original designs. The

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

structure rises above its base. The distinctive

checkerboard A checkerboard (American English) or chequerboard (British English) is a game board of check (pattern), checkered pattern on which checkers (also known as English draughts) is played. Most commonly, it consists of 64 squares (8×8) of alternating ...

feature at the top of the tower has been replicated in UT Orange and white in the endzones at

Neyland Stadium Neyland Stadium ( ) is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several National Footba ...

and at the ends of the court in

Thompson–Boling Arena Thompson–Boling Arena at Food City Center is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. The arena opened in 1987. It is home to the Tennessee Volunteers (men) and Lady Vols (wom ...

, both nearby. The building houses the offices of the university'
College of Arts and Sciences
as well as UT's mathematics department.

References

External links

*
Ayres Hall
, SAH ARCHIPEDIA * Justin C. Dothard
About Face: The Coming of Ayres Hall at the University of Tennesseeadditional link
{{National Register of Historic Places University of Tennessee campus School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee University and college buildings completed in 1921 Gothic Revival architecture in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Knoxville, Tennessee 1921 establishments in Tennessee