Creating Places: A Fiddle Breakdown

The Comfort Inn at 14th Avenue South and Demonbruen Street was recently affixed with absurd looking fiddles. Of cheap materials and a cartoonish design, the fiddles create the effect of unsightly zits on the non-descript structure. It never ceases to puzzle me that some folks think this type junk is aesthetically appealing. 

Creating Places: VU Addition, Pangaea Update

Work appears completed on the facade addition to Cohen Memorial Hall, which fronts 21st Avenue and is located on Vanderbilt University's Peabody Campus. The addition greatly limits long-distance views (for motorists navigating 21st) of the other three sides of the historic structure. On a positive note, the new component of the building (dominated by limestone) is very handsome.

In nearby Hillsboro Village, the brick building home to Pangaea has been given a fresh coat of paint and looks fantastic. The color scheme of bold yellow and semi-electric blue pops with a funkiness befitting of the district. Now if Pangaea's aging (and fading) red awning can just be replaced, perhaps with a silver or charcoal (no more red, please) version...

On the Village theme, I must mention the building that houses Cornerstone Financial Credit Union (a retrofitted structure that was completed in the early 2000s). With each passing year, I dislike this building's exterior more and more — and yearn for the original, despite its flaws. The current exterior is painfully bland, mimicking the uninspired — and safe — junk thrown up seemingly everywhere in this town, whereas the previous iteration at least brought a bit of 1960s urban grit to the table. 

Creating Places: Rating The Pinnacle

As the exterior work on The Pinnacle at Symphony Place comes to a close, it's time to consider where the tower ranks (based primarily on appearance and function) among downtown's buildings of about 300 feet or more.

This writer's Top Five:

1. L&C Tower

2. AT&T Tower

3. The Pinnacle at Symphony Place

4. Fifth-Third Center

5. Nashville City Center 

Thoughts?

Creating Places: Around Town

A few quick hits:

Recently, I noticed for the first time a metal horse framing the roof line of the Charlotte Avenue building home to the Darkhorse Theatre. A very nice artsy touch, no doubt.

New street lights have been installed along the State Street side of the under-construction 1700 Midtown apartment building. The hardware is of a traditional design, which makes no sense given 1700 Midtown is very industrial/contemporary. Disappointing.

On the State Street theme, 1805 State Street (I believe it's a residential structure) ranks as one of Midtown's most underrated buildings. Standing only two stories and offering primarily brick with some stone touches (including a nice cornice), this classy little building is worth checking out either in person or via Google Street View. Doing so will help the viewer better understand the type architectural aesthetic Midtown featured prior to the 1960s, since which developers and architects have often brutalized the area with heinous designs.

Random Tidbits

Both driving and walking this weekend, I noticed the following elements of Nashville's built fabric that are worth a mention:

* The under-construction Pinnacle financial center in Belle Meade (in front of the new Publix) is looking strong. Hastings Architecture Associates has given the building a handsome 21st century design. I'm digging it.

* The vintage brick building home to Smack and located on Elliston Place continues to see its east wall defaced with graffiti. The amount of spray-painted mess seemingly accumulates each month. Sad, as this old-school gem deserves the utmost of care.

* The little brick buildings on Church Street and across from the new-look YMCA are gone. LifeWay owns the land and had the structures demolished, citing their poor condition. No doubt, rehabbing would have been costly. But it could have been done. If downtown is lucky, what eventually replaces the fallen structures will be architecturally noteworthy. This writer, however, is anything by hopeful.   

* One of the best street-level urban views of Nashville can be enjoyed while standing at the intersection of Church Street and Fifth Avenue and looking both north and south. On a similar theme, check the views of the city from the Baptist Hospital crosswalk that spans Church Street. Quite something.

Pinnacle Cap Creates Visual Pop

With the exterior work almost finished for The Pinnacle at Symphony Place SoBro office tower, a key element is worth noting: the decorative cap illuminated at night. 

Most Nashville highrises offer modest (if that) tops. This design characteristic simply adds to the glaringly bland linear form of the city's skyline. Hypothetically, the AT&T Tower ("sunken" as it is on its site) rising from the lot at the southwestern corner of the Fifth Avenue and Church Street intersection would mitigate this "flatness" (as would, for that matter, Signature Tower). 

With the addition of Pinnacle, the skyline now boasts of a building with a eye-catching crowning element (either day or night), thus helping soften the visual monotony of the aforementioned skyline flatness.   

I have noticed that the Pinnacle crown is lit only on occasion. Check it out if you can. 

Demolition Hits Church Street Building

I drove along Church Street yesterday and noticed that an old-school brick building (across from the YMCA and next to the building that houses Venito's) is being demolished. A LifeWay official (LifeWay owns the building, which contained four spaces) confirmed today that the building is being razed due to structural deficiencies.

For now, the replacement will be a surface parking lot. 

How many times has Nashville seen the loss of a charming little pedestrian-scaled building -- only to be replaced by either a synthetic-stucco piece of junk or what may as well be a used car lot? With the rain falling as I type and another historic architectural piece of downtown Nashville soon to be no more, my stomach is upset. 

Details, and a commentary, to follow.