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, June 18, 2011

Creating Places: Bad West End Design Part 4

From the crumbling strip center located within the 2300 block of West End Avenue and anchored by Office Depot, we move to the 1980s-era brick building next to FYE that houses, among other, Schlotzsky's Deli. A key unattractive element of this building is its windows — both the shapes and tints. There is also a second level of retail space that both looks and functions in a somewhat odd manner. I do like the brick color and the fact that a portion of the building straddles the sidewalk. Still, this building represents a strong example of the type suburban-influenced design given to multiple buildings within Nashville's old urban core spanning the 1960s to the 1990s. A surface parking lot severs the building from the street, signage is excessively large and inconsistent in style, and there likely was no consideration given to including a residential component.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJune 21, 2011 at 8:25 AM

    Nothing nice about that building, William. Also, it would be helpful if you did research about the company or organization that owns these buildings and parcels of land along West End.

    You also missed that horrendous multi-level parking garage behind the Cathedral of the Incarnation. The best thing that could be said about that eyesore is (at least) it sits behind a pretty building. Still butt-ugly.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)