Creating Places: My type of building Part III

Below is a photo of the Belmont United Methodist Church addition (completed a few years ago) that houses a gym and other activity spaces. I like the combination of the circular windows and the rectangular spaces created by the squared columns and that allow window views. The limestone and brick combo is nice too. On the brick theme, note the lighter brick on the facade (which faces 21st Avenue) and the darker brick on the side of the building that fronts the side walkway. A very nice touch. Indeed, this building shows an attractive blend of traditional and contemporary elements. Nashville-based Gilbert | McLaughlin | Casella Architects (a very underrated firm) designed this tasteful structure. See more images at the firm's website.

Creating Places: A space without greenery

The below photo reveals one of the most harsh — yet strikingly visually arresting — hardscapes found within Nashville's central business district. I took the photo standing near the sidewalk at Charlotte Avenue and with the Rachel Jackson and Andrew Jackson buildings on my right and left, respectively, in the foreground. In the background is the underrated Nashville City Center (with its First Tennessee signage) and a sliver of the dark-glass-clad James K. Polk Office Building, which I once found appealing yet now consider a semi-abomination (with its poorly defined entrance, odd cap and brutalized street-level forms). Cold and uninviting, this off-the-beaten path portion of downtown somehow manages to lure me toward its cavernous form any time my exercise walks find me within its vicinity.

Creating Places: My type of building Part II

Here is another fine example of the type exterior design I would like to see for future Nashville buildings. Blaine Bonadies, a local man, designed the residential structure, which is located in the 3600 block of West End Avenue next to Blakemore United Methodist Church. Note the dark brick, the vertical windows and the slightly stair stepped roof line — all very tasteful touches. The building nicely melds both traditional and contemporary elements.

Creating Places: My type of building Part I

I have done a poor job with this blog site, at times, of accurately describing the type contemporary buildings — regarding forms, materials, massings and color schemes — I would like to see in Nashville. Often, I have used terms such as "feminine," "impermanent," "flimsy," etc. to describe area structures that lacked ruggedness and a sleek and/or slightly industrial vibe. On this theme, I found an image (see below) of a residential building in Madrid, Spain, that nicely illustrates the type smaller buildings I would like to see for Nashville as the city moves into this decade. The structure (a name for which I could not determine) is not without its flaws. In particular, the base lacks a clearly defined entrance. Still, this is cool building. It reminds me, ever so slightly, of one of my favorite small urban buildings in Nashville: Laurel House Apartments (visit this site for a nice image of that underrated Gulch mixed-use structure).

Creating Places, 2013 Preview, Part II

With the weekend winding down and the soothing musical strains of Stanze, the atmospheric semi-masterpiece by Ludovico Einaudi and Cecilia Chailly, as a backdrop, I offer a few more quick hits regarding projections for Nashville's manmade environment in 2013.

*  I am greatly anticipating SWH Residential Partners' releasing of a rendering for the apartment building it plans to develop at Rolling Mill Hill (read more here). If the building is to offer some neo-art deco touches (as SWH has considered), it could be a stellar addition to the Hill. SWH Managing Partner John Tirrill is a class gentleman who lives in Atlanta but spends a good bit of time in Nashville, in which he grew up. Interestingly, Tirrill's grandfather years ago worked at the old Metro General Hospital, two former buildings for which are now residential structures (the Victorian and the Art Deco) at RMH.

* Southern Land's proposed mixed use project to anchor the southeast corner of the Hillsboro and Richard Jones roads T-intersection is slated to start by mid-year. The project should be the most urban — in its orientation, height, massing and mixture of uses — Green Hills has ever seen (even more so that the nicely executed Hill Center). Nashville Ledger has an interesting cover story about the project in this week's edition. Click here to read.

* A few folks have asked me recently if I think H.G. Hill Realty Co. will announce a major project for its site at Charlotte and 40th avenues (currently home to a car wash and a lot of dead space). I don't foresee it. The company will be very busy with its 12South Flats development and projects in Brentwood, Hillsboro Village and Midtown (with the building formerly home to The Great Escape).

*  There remains continued speculation Alex S. Palmer & Co. will land InterContinental Hotel for its twin-tower West End Summit site, thus necessitating a third high-rise. The two parties signed a deal in 2006 but much has changed since then. This one seems 50-50.

* Lastly, I predict the Metro Art Commission will select Christian Moeller to handle the massive art piece that eventually will punctuate the KVB Roundabout. I have no insider info, so this is just a hunch. Check Moeller's work here.

Creating Places: 2013 Preview, Part I

There is much to look forward to regarding changes to Nashville's built environment this year. With that theme in mind — and as the haunting and atmospheric sounds of Thomas Newman's brilliant Adjustment Bureau soundtrack tempt me with slumber — here are just a few thoughts about 2013.

* This could be the "year of the hotel." Currently being built and within no more than two miles from the central business district are, listed alphabetically, Fairfield Inn (the Gulch), Hyatt Place (SoBro), Homewood Suites (West End Corridor), Omni (SoBro) and two Marriott hotels (Midtown). Soon to start is a Hilton Garden Inn in SoBro, In addition, and just outside the I-440 loop, another Marriott is under construction in Bedford Commons in Green Hills. On tap to start by mid-year is hotel (the brand  has yet to be announced) at the Buckingham Cos. site in Midtown. That's nine hotels. If my woeful memory serves me, never will urban Nashville have had this number of hotels under construction at any given time during the last 20 years.

* On the hotel theme, I exchanged an email today with Rob Schaedle of Chartwell Hospitality, the developer of the Bedford Commons Marriott and the Hilton Garden Inn planned for SoBro. He wrote that demolition should begin very soon on the SoBro site.

* And continuing the hotel theme, many of us continue to wonder if Swerdling Associates will start work this year on a hotel at the Lower Broad site for which a Westin was planned years ago. Similarly, some have asked my thoughts regarding the hotel Giarratana Development would like to build at Molloy and Fourth in SoBro. I suppose the chances of the former starting this year are 50-50 (at best), while the chances of the latter doing likewise are much less certain. Having said that, I would truly like to see Tony Giarratana develop a hotel on the proposed site, which is currently home to a surface parking lot that Giarratana's Premier Parking operates.

* One of the best "neo-traditional" building to be completed in years within this city is the Randall and Sadie Baskin Law Center (see here), which opened earlier this year on the Belmont University campus. I predict the equivalent academic building (in terms of quality materials, workmanship and timeless aesthetic) that will open in 2013 will be the Kissam College Halls.

* Lastly, a major project that will take shape this year within the I-440 loop and about which I am only modestly excited: the Lentz Public Health Clinic (read more here). The building itself should look nice enough but it will be surrounded by a sea of nothingness. Also, I will lament the loss of the existing Lentz facility, which I consider a fine example of modernist architecture.

More to follow as we continue to look at what awaits in 2013 ...



 

Creating Places: 2012 Highlights, Part II

A few more observations about Nashville's built environment highlights from the past year ...

* With the opening of Vista Germantown, the near completion of both Sixth & Garfield and The Square at Fourth and Madison (see image below), and the opening of Rolf & Daughters in a rehabbed space in Werthan Lofts, we might look back in a few years and say 2012 was the year Germantown/Salemtown began to zoom past Five Points and 12South as the city's second-most construction-intense mixed-use urban district (trailing only the Gulch). And more new infill is on the way, including Evergreen's project at Eighth and Hume (read more here), SWH's massive development at the Werthan site (read more here), Jim Creason's project at Fifth and Monroe (read more here), and Robin York's five-unit residential building slated for the southeast corner of Sixth and Garfield (read about here).

* West End Park continues to be transformed in an almost stunning manner. However, none of the infill structures of the past 10 years (I count at least 12 residential buildings of at least five units or more have been built) offers office or retail space. The district remains fully residential — and that is a bit disappointing. Word has it a retail space was planned for the under-construction West End Village (read more here). Obviously, that failed to materialize.

* With two major projects having started in late 2012, Eight Avenue South/Franklin Road continues to take shape. However, if the street is ever to be vibrant with pedestrians, it will need the following: 1. mixed-use buildings; 2. an "epicenter" of sorts (I supposed the so-called Antique District anchored by Zanies could be that center); and 3. sidewalks from the street's segment spanning the roughly one-half-mile stretch from Craighead to Gale.

* On the Eighth Avenue theme, the facade of 700 Wedgewood Park, which Peggy Krebs has developed at Wedgewood and Interstate 65 one block east of Eighth (read more here), is fairly attractive. But the sides and back are painfully bland. Seemingly, the building is almost finished.

* One of the most underrated developments of 2012 is Shoppes on Fatherland located in the general  Five Points area. Very nicely done.

Next up: A look at what is to come in 2013.