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 4, 2012

Creating Places: Downtown OKC from on high

Check this site for some stellar aerial photography of Oklahoma City, a mid-sized city that is a Nashville peer of sorts. Note the dominance of the 52-story Devon Tower, which opened this past spring. The striking high-rise has redefined the Oklahoma capital's skyline. Kudos to Holly Baumann for a great job of capturing the essence of OKC's urban core.
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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 5, 2012 at 7:43 AM

    There is no way OKC even comes close to being a peer city of Nashville.

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  2. William WilliamsAugust 5, 2012 at 9:53 AM

    A-Mous.

    Two things:

    1. I wrote "of sorts," which infers the two are not peer cities in the strictest of senses. Clearly, Nashville is more "high profile" than OKC.

    2. There are various similarities that suggest a certain "peer" quality. Both OKC and Nashville are state capitals, both are perceived as the "main cities" in their respective states despite having strong "in-state rivals" (Memphis for Nashville and Tulsa for OKC), both are influenced by, but not dominated by, major universities (OKC by UofOklahoma in nearby Norman and Nashville by Vanderbilt), both have city limits that cover large geographic areas (about 500 sq miles for Nashville and 600 sq miles for OKC), both have secured pro sports franchises relatively recently, both are located in fast-growing areas of the country and both have MSAs that are showing similar annual growth (about 2% for OKC and 1.7% for Nashville).

    WW

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    1. AnonymousAugust 7, 2012 at 1:44 PM

      Thanks WW for that reply to Anon. He/she clearly has never been to OKC. It's very much a peer city of Nashville's. The two are quite similiar. Glad to see how he/she backed up his comment. LOL

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  3. AnonymousAugust 6, 2012 at 12:03 PM

    Thank you for the compliment and for sharing my work! I hope your readers enjoy the images. I love Nashville, as well! Haven't been in too long...maybe someday soon. Best regards, Holly

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  4. PillowTalk4August 6, 2012 at 12:38 PM

    Very nice photo's.

    WW, I agree that OKC isn't exactly a peer city to Nashville, but your perspective was understood.

    After seeing the OKC pictures I now want to see Nashville with a 50+ story building(s) even more. Nashville's downtown is larger and a 50 story building wouldn't be as much of a stark contrast as it is in OKC. Though it would still be iconic.

    On a side note: After looking at London during the Olympics I'm even more positive that Nashville should have done more development along the Cumberland River on both sides. I sure hope that one day east bank development will take off.

    Second side note: Apparently the editors of House Hunters on HGTV love to confuse the Nashville and Pittsburgh skylines. They have goofed and placed each cities skyline in shows for the other. Just a little tidbit I thought noticed a couple of times while viewing House Hunters.

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  5. AnonymousAugust 6, 2012 at 1:10 PM

    As one who loves the "art" of tall buildings, this tower looks a bit ridiculous if not stupid. Way out of place. They should have constructed three 300 foot towers and used up some surface parking lots and dead space. OK City is nowhere near an Atlanta or Houston and this tower should have never been built. With that said, Nashville is on the verge of such a tower but the only industries building towers of this size are energy companies and banks, both of which are very volatile at the moment.

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    1. AnonymousAugust 7, 2012 at 1:52 PM

      Nashville is no Houston or Atlanta either, so what would makes you think we wouldn't look "stupid" like OKC? I don't think that it looks stupid at all. Very progressive for a progressive city.

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  6. William WilliamsAugust 6, 2012 at 11:01 PM

    Thanks for all who replied and, particularly, to Holly for the strong camera work.

    PillowTalk4, very interesting about the Pittsburgh and Nashville confusion. Would that our skyline could even remotely rival that of the Steel City.

    And as to AMous's comments about the Devon Tower looking out of place, I might agree to an extent. But let's remember that the L&C Tower looked odd when it opened, towering over everything near it. With that in mind, when OKC gets, for example, a 700-footer or taller, the Devon Tower will be more in scale.

    WW

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