Covenant Health Park is the 2025 Ballpark of the Year, according to BaseballParks.com!

The award honors the best new stadium in pro baseball, and has been awarded for 25 years. Covenant Health Park was recognized for exceptional design, fan and player amenities, gameday experience, and the overall context of the stadium — nestled into Knoxville's Old City.

The award will be presented to Boyd Sports early in the 2026 baseball season — along with members of the design team, including BarberMcMurry, Design Innovation Architects, and Populous.

Covenant Health Park — the new downtown Knoxville home for the Tennessee Smokies and One Knoxville SC — is the first mass timber project ever completed in Knoxville. 

Mass timber is a highly sustainable building material, generated from a renewable resource that not only reduces emissions but sequesters carbon. Additionally, mass timber allows for faster construction time, structural advantages, and adds a living warmth to the stadium design itself. 

Covenant Health Park uses exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT) in its roofing system, spanning approximately 36,500 square feet. The CLT was crafted from 10,950 cubic feet of Southern yellow pine, saving a whopping 55 tons of steel production. According to the Woodworks Wood Products Council, North American yellow pine forests regenerate roughly this amount of lumber in a single minute. 

“Mass timber and CLT are a sustainable and efficient building solution,” said Kelly Headden, AIA, NCARB, Executive Vice President & COO at BarberMcMurry Architects. “At Covenant Health Park, using mass timber shaved two months off the construction schedule, saved money and energy, and is absolutely beautiful.” 

BarberMcMurry, in collaboration with Design Innovation Architects and Populous, were the design team for Covenant Health Park. The use of mass timber was further supported by Walter P. Moore Structural Engineers and Denark Construction. 

The timber used in the CLT roof at Covenant Health Park stored approximately 313 metric tons of carbon dioxide and avoided an additional 121 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions — for a total carbon benefit of 434 metric tons, equivalent to removing 92 cars from the road or operating 46 homes for an entire year. 

The natural aesthetics of the exposed timber are an example of biophilic design, or design that connects building occupants to nature by incorporating natural elements. Various studies have shown that biophilia has measurable positive impacts on wellbeing, cognitive function, and physical health. 

“We’re immensely proud that Covenant Health Park is the first mass timber project ever completed in Knoxville,” Headden said. “Mass timber is part of the future of design due to its sustainability, versatility and beauty — and we’re grateful to Boyd Sports and Randy Boyd for leading the way in sustainable design in Knoxville.”

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