Pier 865 is a newly completed public-art installation in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. It is both a sculpture and a walkable pavilion, a hybrid between art, architecture, and civic infrastructure. The project was authorized by the city and installed in the city’s small downtown green space, Cradle of Country Music Park, located at the intersection of Gay Street and Summit Hill Drive.
Pier 865’s Sculptural Canopy
The creative team behind the work MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY imagined Pier 865 as a subtle bridging of downtown’s urban fabric with the natural space of the park. From the artist’s own description, the structure is “not simply a canopy, nor solely a pier, but a lifted promenade and a sculptural grove, a place where movement meets pause, and the park becomes a stage.”
In other words, the pier carries the rhythm of the city’s sidewalks and streets out into green space, while the canopy evokes, through its twisted geometry and materiality, something organic, almost alive.
Depending on where you stand, Pier 865 reveals different characters. From ground level, the twisting aluminum strips resemble plant life sprouting from concrete; from above, the gently curving canopy casts a sinuous, serpentine silhouette that winds among the trees. This duality, urban and natural, concrete base and flowing metal canopy, functional walkway, and abstract sculpture, is central to the project’s identity.
Materials & Construction
Structure & Materials
- The installation rests on a cast-in-place concrete pier that gently extends into the park’s landscape.
- Above this pier, a lightweight canopy composed of hundreds (in fact, tens of thousands) of aluminum strips rises. Each strip is pre-folded and painted.
- The strips are painted in a carefully considered gradient of seven tones of soft greens, deep-sea blues, and butter yellows so that the piece visually resonates with the surrounding foliage, sky, and park context.
Form & Geometry
- The canopy unfurls like a ribbon, twisting and spiraling upward into a vaulted, branching crown. The geometry evokes natural forms, trunks, branches, and forest growth while remaining unmistakably digital and fabricated.
- The structure is held up by five slender legs, from which branch three distinct “wings.” One wing loops forward, another rises into a shaded platform (intended as a small stage for events), and a third sweeps low and quiet among the trees, creating a more intimate, contemplative space.
Experience & Spatial Qualities
- Walking up the pier means a gentle rise that leads visitors out into this sculptural grove. Along the way, there are ledges and benches integrated into the walkway and subtle shifts in height and surface that guide movement and encourage lingering.
- Under the canopy, light filters through thousands of tiny gaps and perforations in the metal, scattering sunlight like dappled leaf-shadow, creating an atmosphere of filtered, soft light, reminiscent of being beneath a real tree canopy.
- At night (or in low light), the enveloping form and its gradient surfaces reportedly offer a peaceful, glowing presence in the park, a kind of contemporary “urban lantern.”
Purpose, Function, and Public Role
Pier 865 was never meant to be just a “sculpture to look at.” Instead, it’s a public infrastructure, a reinterpretation of what urban park design can be, functional and communal. By elevating the city’s walkway into a slab that extends into the park, the project connects two historically significant districts: the downtown theater area and the older Old Town neighborhood.
The structure encourages different modes of use:
- Gathering & community events: One of the wings functions as a small stage ideal for performances, music, or civic events.
- Rest & contemplation: The low, quiet wing among the trees gives individuals a place to sit, rest, enjoy shade, and reflect.
- A new public vantage point: From elevated views under the canopy, visitors can look out over city blocks, real tree canopies, and distant mountains, a perspective previously unavailable in that park.
In that sense, Pier 865 transforms the small 0.58-acre triangle of Cradle of Country Music Park (once underused and modest) into a dynamic, multi-functional urban space.
How Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY Brought the Vision of Pier 865 to Life
The Pier 865 began with a call by the city back in 2017; the park needed a “site-specific piece of permanent public art” for its downtown green space. 129 artists from around the world applied.
In 2018, the commission was awarded to MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY. The project was originally budgeted at roughly $500,000. However, with additional funding for landscaping, site preparation, and final installation, and after delays (including those tied to the pandemic), the total investment rose, and the completed project came in at about $1.2 million.
The pier foundation and walking path construction contract was awarded in 2022; the pier is to be completed by February 2024. Aluminum structure fabrication and installation by THEVERYMANY staff, with final assembly completed by April 2025.
The plan maintained tree preservation. 12 mature trees were kept, only one was removed, and nine new trees were added. Thus, after nearly a decade of planning, deliberation, design work, and construction, Pier 865 opened to the public in early 2025.
It was a long-overdue renewal of downtown’s underused green space. The piece’s contemporary design, organic form, and generous public access have been praised as a fresh way to use art as infrastructure, giving shape, function, and identity to a park that previously lacked a strong presence.
Concerns were also raised about community input (especially in artist selection) and the fact that the selection process did not prioritize local artists. But importantly, the project team and the city took steps to limit environmental impact; only one existing tree was removed, and new trees were planted to maintain and even improve the park’s green character.
Pier 865 stands as an example of how public art, especially modern, digitally fabricated structures, can transcend mere ornamentation. It offers a walkable, usable, and experiential form, reshaping how people interact with public space. It invites lingering, gathering, seeing the city from new perspectives, and even imagining neighborhoods anew.
Pier 865 reflects growing interest in computational design, digital fabrication, and public art as infrastructure, showing that contemporary art can offer civic value. The fact that a half-acre downtown park has been reimagined into a layered public realm demonstrates the potential of thoughtful design to turn small urban pockets into meaningful community spaces.
Image credit: Steve Kroodsma & MARC FORNES / THEVERYMANY
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