Studies under way on how best to save K-25 ‘U’ building — Oak Ridge’s WWII secretA U.S. Congressional 2006 appropriation of $500,000 for East Tennessee Technology Park historical preservation is being invested in Oak Ridge’s historic preservation, saving part of one of its most significant monuments — the historic K-25 “U” plant.The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Operations Office awarded the grant to the city of Oak Ridge to administer in September. Under an agreement with the city, $340,000 is now being put to work by the Partnership for K-25 Preservation, a partnership of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association and the Atomic Heritage Foundation of Washington, D.C.According to information from the ORHPA, contracts have been awarded to two Nashville firms, both of whom have already been working on preliminary concepts for preserving the K-25 “U” building and interpreting its history. Bill Wilcox, co-chairman of the local PKP group of ORHPA, stated, “We are delighted to be able to develop in more detail how to ‘show and tell’ the story of this national treasure for future generations.”According to ORHPA, DOE-ORO intends to seek National Historic Landmark status for the entire 43-acre footprint of the historic U-shaped building — the largest single process building of the Manhattan Project — and to save just one small part of the mammoth structure, the base of the “U” or North Tower. Even this remnant is expected to give visitors a sense of the enormity of the “U,” since it is over a football field wide. The Atomic Heritage Foundation has been working with the Department of Energy and other federal, state and local partners to preserve the most significant Manhattan Project properties across the country. Foundation President Cindy Kelly said, “The K-25 plant is a monument to the most ambitious scientific and engineering undertaking of the last century. When the National Park Service makes its recommendations to Congress in 2009 on whether to designate a national historic park for the Manhattan Project, the K-25 plant site and North End will be a central feature. The Department of Energy lists it as one of Oak Ridge’s three ‘Signature Facilities of the Manhattan Project,’ along with the Y-12 Calutrons and X-10 Graphite Reactor.”“The purpose of the new contracts is to figure out the best way to preserve the K-25 property and create a compelling heritage tourism destination. The public has never been permitted to see inside this first-of-a-kind facility that worked so well that it remained the state-of-the-art for enriching uranium for decades,” ORHPA stated in a news release. As museum exhibit designer Johnny Gruber commented, “At 43 acres, this is the biggest secret of the Secret City!”The firms now working together on developing a master plan for interpreting the historic K-25 “U” are Tuck Hinton Architects and Access Museum Services, both of Nashville. Among many commissions, Tuck Hinton designed and developed the great Bicentennial Mall in Nashville, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, and is now designing the Fort Campbell Military Museum. Access Museum designed and helped develop over 70 historical and other specialty museum exhibitions such as the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, Aviation Museum at Marietta, Ga., Kentucky Music Hall of Fame, National Model Railroad Museum, and numerous others over the last 25 years. Wilcox said that even though their work on these contracts will not be finished for several months, their early findings will be an important input to the Heritage Tourism Implementation Master Plan being developed for the city by Akins Crisp Public Strategies under the direction of Katy Brown of the City’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.Brown said, “An investment in the heritage tourism resources in Oak Ridge, preserving and promoting its unique role in World War II and its continuing achievements ever since on the frontiers of nuclear science, could pay important economic dividends for the city of Oak Ridge and Anderson and Roane counties.” |
