OUR MISSION & HISTORY

In 1969, the late Bruce McCarty, FAIA, then-President of the local AIA, alongside several local architects, returned from a trip to the community design center in Philadelphia and gathered roughly forty local professionals to discuss the need for such a center in this region. On April 15th, 1970, the East Tennessee Community Design Center (ETCDC) was founded.

The objective of ETCDC has been to make East Tennessee a better place by bringing professional design and planning assistance to communities and organizations lacking resources to acquire those services. Our mission is to Envision, Inspire, and Improve East Tennessee communities through design, collaboration, and leadership. The ETCDC also serves as a catalyst to initiate projects within our service area and serves as an advocate for quality design in the public realm. The ETCDC offers these services through the pro-bono contributions of area architects, landscape architects, planners, engineers, and other professionals.

Since its founding, the ETCDC has completed over 1,200 projects in the 16 county region it serves!

Who We Serve

We serve a 16 county region within East Tennessee. The star is Knoxville. The counties we serve, seen in blue, include:

• Anderson

• Blount

• Campbell

• Claiborne

• Cocke

• Grainger

• Hamblen

• Jefferson

• Knox

• Loudon

• Monroe

• Morgan

• Roane

• Scott

• Sevier

• Union