Creating Places, 2013 Preview, Part II

With the weekend winding down and the soothing musical strains of Stanze, the atmospheric semi-masterpiece by Ludovico Einaudi and Cecilia Chailly, as a backdrop, I offer a few more quick hits regarding projections for Nashville's manmade environment in 2013.

*  I am greatly anticipating SWH Residential Partners' releasing of a rendering for the apartment building it plans to develop at Rolling Mill Hill (read more here). If the building is to offer some neo-art deco touches (as SWH has considered), it could be a stellar addition to the Hill. SWH Managing Partner John Tirrill is a class gentleman who lives in Atlanta but spends a good bit of time in Nashville, in which he grew up. Interestingly, Tirrill's grandfather years ago worked at the old Metro General Hospital, two former buildings for which are now residential structures (the Victorian and the Art Deco) at RMH.

* Southern Land's proposed mixed use project to anchor the southeast corner of the Hillsboro and Richard Jones roads T-intersection is slated to start by mid-year. The project should be the most urban — in its orientation, height, massing and mixture of uses — Green Hills has ever seen (even more so that the nicely executed Hill Center). Nashville Ledger has an interesting cover story about the project in this week's edition. Click here to read.

* A few folks have asked me recently if I think H.G. Hill Realty Co. will announce a major project for its site at Charlotte and 40th avenues (currently home to a car wash and a lot of dead space). I don't foresee it. The company will be very busy with its 12South Flats development and projects in Brentwood, Hillsboro Village and Midtown (with the building formerly home to The Great Escape).

*  There remains continued speculation Alex S. Palmer & Co. will land InterContinental Hotel for its twin-tower West End Summit site, thus necessitating a third high-rise. The two parties signed a deal in 2006 but much has changed since then. This one seems 50-50.

* Lastly, I predict the Metro Art Commission will select Christian Moeller to handle the massive art piece that eventually will punctuate the KVB Roundabout. I have no insider info, so this is just a hunch. Check Moeller's work here.