Summitt Plaza

With over 1,000 career victories, 8 national championship titles, and her public battle with Alzheimer’s, University of Tennessee Women’s Basketball Head Coach, Pat Summitt, left an indelible mark on the history of collegiate athletics. Several years before her official retirement in 2012, plans were already in discussion to create a tangible expression of the university’s appreciation and honor for this legendary coach.

Studio Four Design was given the opportunity to design a plaza to recognize the accomplishments of Coach Summitt, while providing an engaging and timeless entrance to campus from Neyland Drive. With the desire to radiate class and elegance, like its namesake, Summitt Plaza deploys materials produced from naturally occurring elements, rich in character.  The plaza evokes the shape and strands of a basketball hoop with the statue of Coach Summitt situated in the center, looking towards the arena. The site, extending up Lake Loudon Boulevard, received new terracing, landscaping, and site lighting with Pat Summitt’s signature backlit. The plaza remains an active location even after sunset and engages pedestrian and vehicular traffic through the design’s attention to scale and sightlines.

Summitt Plaza is a visual honor and representation of the imprint that Coach Summitt’s character left on so many of countless players, fans, and families. “If I’m not leading by example, then I’m not doing the right thing. And I want to always do the right thing.” – Pat Summitt