University of Tennessee Knoxville, Poplar Hall and Beacon East & West

Recognized as the Best Public/Private Development of the Year (2026) at the InterFace Student Housing Conference, this project stands as a model for how universities can expand critical amenities without the burden of traditional long-term capital lease obligations.

With thousands of students counting on these buildings being ready at the start of the semester, on-time delivery wasn’t just a project goal – it was a commitment to the university and its students. The team executed with precision, completing both buildings and handing them over ahead of student move-in.

Construction on and near an active university campus rarely comes without complications, and the ground beneath UT’s campus proved to be among the most challenging aspects of this project. Stable foundation depths varied dramatically within the same area, demanding extensive deep foundation work to navigate unpredictable subsurface conditions.

Since breaking ground in January of 2024, the project team successfully installed an extraordinary 17 miles of underground piles across both sites. The Poplar Hall site required 437 piles averaging 81.3 feet in depth, while the Beacon Hall site demanded 1,047 piles averaging 51.9 feet each – a staggering volume of underground work that made everything above ground possible.