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.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Creating Places: Omni Hotel architect

With the announcement of an Omni Hotel to be the anchor hotel for the MCC, I did a bit of searching for architectural firms that have designed other Omnis.

Hornberger + Worstell Associates (San Francisco) designed the San Diego Omni, while HOK handled design chores for Forth Worth's Omni. 5G Studio Collaborative and BOKA Powell teamed to create the Dallas Omni, currently under construction. Culpepper, McAuliffe and Meaders designed Atlanta's Omni, while Morris Architects crafted Omni Houston.

See a trend emerging? The privately held, Irving, Texas-based Omni Hotels & Resorts (whose Omni Corporate actually owns many of the hotel properties) uses various architects.

At this point, I might lean toward hoping Nashville's Omni is designed by San Francisco-based Hornberger + Worstell. A quick glance at the H + W website reveals the firm has designed hotels for numerous high-profile hospitality operations, including Intercontinental, Marriott and W. And the designs seems of quality.

Of note, I'll be surprised if Omni Nashville rises more than 30 stories and 350 feet. Regardless, the building should be rather robust for its location, extending downtown's skyline farther south than is currently the case.


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