U. of Tennessee Celebrates Howard Baker With a Building

The U. of Tennessee at Knoxville celebrated its new Baker Center building last week. (U. of Tennessee photo)

It’s a good time of year for grand openings. On many campuses, harried contractors turn over the keys to new buildings just a few days before the beginning of the fall semester, and faculty members trying to move into their new offices find themselves carrying boxes around construction workers fixing items on the punch list. Scheduling the big ceremony a couple of months later assures that the paint will be dry, the shrubs will be planted, the plumbing will work, and the dean will have calmed down some.

Among the new buildings that have enjoyed ribbon cuttings lately is the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, a 53,000-square-foot, $17-million structure that got the full treatment last week — speeches by state politicians; a public talk by Sandra Day O’Connor, the retired Supreme Court justice; even fireworks.

The building, which includes archive space, a museum, and offices, was designed by McCarty, Holsaple, McCarty Architects. It has an office for Mr. Baker, who retired from the Senate in 1985 and subsequently served President Ronald Reagan as chief of staff and President George H.W. Bush as ambassador to Japan. He remains active as a fund raiser and adviser for the center.