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.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Creating Places: Random tidbits

I offer a few quick hits after having just learned that the underrated Lane Motor Museum, located on Murfreesboro Road, has more Czech-made cars than any other facility located outside the former Czechoslovakia...

* Ray Hensler's tower is out of the ground and the flooring for level two is being created. Within the next three weeks, the building should be at least 30 feet tall and assuming some nice definition.

* Similarly, a segment of 1505 Demonbreun is out of the ground.

* Next door to 1505, the nondescript Comfort Inn is getting a major facelift. We can only hope that as part of the improvement, the tacky fiddles that pockmark some of the building's exterior will be removed.

* The Avenue of the Arts streetscape update is finished. I find the light poles to be of an attractive design and scale. Unfortunately, the poles don't include a lower cross arm to keep banners secured. As such, two (of the seven) banners were flapping wildly this past Saturday. When will Metro learn this makeshift approach to banner display simply does not work?

* A stat of note: There are approximately 12 buildings of 75 feet or taller currently under construction within no more than three miles of the heart of downtown.

* The Homewood Suites being built on the former FYE site has the potential to look much nicer than I had anticipated.

* The new Regions sign atop One Nashville Place looks very nice when lit at night. Not so much during the day.

* I'm not a fan of the two brick segments of the otherwise non-brick facade of Pine Street Flats in The Gulch.

* Full-scale work is now underway on the building that will be home to the future Metropolitan Bank Nashville headquarters. The former home to Bill Hudson & Associates is located on West End and across from the rising West End Summit. See photo below courtesy of Google Streetview.




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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 4, 2013 at 7:52 AM

    Glad to see that the Metropolitan Bank will take over the bland and boring building at 1701 West End Ave. That will be a prime spot very soon as the West End Summit rises. When can we expect the excavation to be completed, foundations in place and cranes on site at WES? By August?

    ReplyDelete
  2. William WilliamsJune 4, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    AMous,

    Good question about WES. I would think August or September, but it could be as late as October for the cranes. Let's hope not. I'm ready to see full-scale on-site work being done.

    WW

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJune 5, 2013 at 1:46 PM

    (1) Has Alex Palmer & Co. released revised renderings of the West End Summit with the hotel as the third tower?

    (2) Is the hotel still set to be an InterContinental, or is another high-end brand in the works?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. William WilliamsJune 9, 2013 at 10:46 PM

      AMous,

      No new renderings. Yes (as far as we all know) on the ICont.

      WW

      Delete

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