Creating Places: A Citizen Observer's Look at Nashville's Built Environment


Writer's Note: William Williams' interest in the manmade environment dates to 1970, at which point the then-young Williams started a collection of postcards of city skylines. The collection now numbers 1,000-plus cards. Among the writer's specific interests are exterior building design, city district planning, demographics, signage, mixed-use development, mass transit and green/sustainable construction and living. Williams began his Creating Places column with The City Paper in February 2005. The column in its original form was discontinued in September 2008 and reinvented via this blog in November 2008. Creating Places can be found on the home page of the website of The City Paper, at which Williams has worked in various capacities since October 2000.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

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.

4 comments:

  1. Don't forget to highlight some developments on the East side as well.

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    Replies
    1. Yes.. It would be great to have all the key Nashville area projects, including Cool Springs, Brentwood, and other fast developing areas of the Nashville metro region.

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    2. A Mous,

      Urban Planet Nashville has various threads focused on projects in different parts of the city.

      Check it out:

      http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php/forum/250-nashville/

      WW

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    3. AMous 1:17 PM,

      There isn't much planned for the east side in 2013. Adam Leibowitz is doing his East Side Apartments project on Main Street, and Mike Hampton hopes to start on his residential development on Woodland. But that's about it.

      WW

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