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, September 5, 2010

Creating Places: Virago Midtown

The vintage industrial building that will soon be home to a re-located Virago is looking stellar. Midtown-based architect Barry Brechak Architecture + Design is handling the work and appears set to hit a homerun with the effort. Recently, the brick facade received a nice coat of dark gray paint. Masculine, yet warm, the new color gives the building (located at 12th Avenue South and McGavock Street) a sleek feel. And now an eye-catching cladding is being applied. Of note, the South American rot-resistant material is called "tiger wood" and is used for, among others, outdoor decking. Slated next is the installation of a corner sign that will have "Virago" on both the building's west and south faces. Barry Brechak is one of many local architects 40 and younger who studied design at the top-notch architecture program at the University of Tennessee. He's a good man doing quality work — as his firm's retrofit of the once-hideous and now quite attractive exterior of the nearby structure home to Whiskey Kitchen attests.

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