Look inside Memphis' renovated convention center
Dark corridors, low-ceiling rooms replaced by windows where exterior bricks once were, upscale restrooms, smaller conference rooms with higher ceilings, more escalators, and friendlier access from the garage.
Tens of thousands of Memphians have streamed through the Memphis Cook Convention Center for events and conferences since the block-long building at 255 North Main opened nearly 50 years ago.
Now, the final stages of a $200 million renovation have updated the conference hall, recently renamed the Renasant Convention Center, to make it appear open and spacious.
Workers will finish in January. When they do, those who might remember navigating the original dark corridors and low-ceiling rooms of the cavernous building will find wide windows where exterior bricks once were, upscale restrooms, finer sound-proof fabrics and veneers on walls, more meeting rooms with higher ceilings, more escalators, quicker-loading truck-trailer elevators, and a more appealing entryway from the 1,000-vehicle parking garage.
Here’s a look at a few of the highlights intended to modernize the conference hall for conventions coming from outside Memphis and make it more friendly for the business meetings and conferences planned regularly by organizations in the city as diverse as Autozone, Ducks Unlimited, Fedex, National Cotton Council, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Walking — or parking — in Memphis
Park in the three-level garage and new speakers placed on the ceiling will pipe in the sound of Memphis-made music for pedestrians as they make their way to the new glass doorways that lead to the corridor connecting to the conference rooms. Here’s the thing about the doorways: You can see where you are going and easily find staircases and escalators, unlike the impression left by the original solid doors and dark corridors.
Upscale restrooms
“Our goal was to make the building look hotel quality,” said Kevin Kane, chief executive of Memphis Tourism, the agency that markets and manages the Renasant center. That goal is evident in the sparkling restrooms. The original fixtures, reminiscent of what might be found in a city park, have been replaced.
White tiles gleam on the walls. Tall mirrors stand over white sinks. Bright and narrow vertical LED lights shine every 6 feet. Among the 23 restrooms in the building are more facilities for women than men.
“We have more toilets now than Fedexforum,” Kane said.
Faster loading trucks
Memphis was once home to what Kane called the largest semi-truck-trail