CenterHill

Great! I’ve been to the Ocean Prime in NYC and it was excellent.

Totally. I raised the same question on here a couple years ago. The double stoplights take a while to get through. When you’re sitting there waiting and look around it’s just so obviously screaming out for a roundabout.

True. So may be continuing this design on the bridge. With planters.

Hmm, you may be right. Based on the blurb @donNdonelson2posted saying the sidewalk space “allowed for concrete planters to be placed separating traffic from pedestrians”, I was reading it to say the planters were not a wall and not part of the bridge design. Thought they were saying the design leaves room for someone else, Metro, to have the option to install, or not, a line of individual concrete boxes (aka trash receptacles) in between the sidewalk mounted light poles. But haven’t seen it in person and curious if the bridge as of now even includes wiring for lighting or if that is up to Metro to drill, wire and install later. Like most, I’m underwhelmed by the finished product.

The renderings show the light poles mounted about six inches from passing cars. We all know how that will end for the light poles. Why in the world would you not mount them on the outside of the bridge railing?

Not to derail the lack of airport bus service convo because lots of good points being made, but wanted to comment on Mark’s pics of the new 31st Ave center dividers. They’re very nice but I would rather have seen the road width configured to add bike lanes here. 31st is a perfect example of the comments in the posts above about Nashville’s seemingly directionless plan for a connected network of bike lanes. When the 28th Ave connector and bridge was built a few years ago it included protected bike lanes from Charlotte to Park Plaza. But that’s it. 28th has painted bike lanes all the way from from TSU to Charlotte and the connector extends them but they stop at Park Plaza. 31st has none. This could have been an opportunity to extend them at least up to West End and VU’s campus. Maybe the project in Mark’s post is going to include the sidewalk style bike lanes like on the connector but I can’t see any evidence of that in the photos.

That’s an interesting take, Ron. My perspective, as a user of the downtown bike lanes, is the opposite. They are too small, or non existent on most streets. Other than on the 2 viaducts (Church and Demonbreun), I don’t know where you think the bike lanes are too big. When the viaducts were remarked for 3 lanes instead of 4, it left room for wider bike lanes. But that exists only on the viaducts themselves. As soon as you’re off the viaduct the bike lanes disappear (“share the road”). And what protected bike lanes? The only one I’ve found downtown is on 11th through the Gulch (bikes share the sidewalk), everything else is paint. I do agree that Nashville hasn’t gotten it right, but I think the solution is to do more with bike lanes, not less. I love the new separated bike lanes on 12 South, for example, and would like to see more of this. It’s safer and actually connects one part of town with downtown. Until there is more of this, you’re not going to see many more people adopting bikes as their primary means of commuting.

Thanks for keeping us updated on the photos. Re concrete, there are no forms built yet, so I doubt concrete is imminent. I expect the water is sprayed on the walls during excavation to keep the dust down. Just a guess.

Manny's House of Pizza is a such a downtown institution and probably what most long time Nashvillians associate with the Arcade, along with the Peanut Shop. I hate to see Manny's priced out of the Arcade, or out of business altogether. I don't know how the rent at Assembly Food Hall (Fifth & Broad) compares, but several other small local restaurants seem to be thriving at the food hall. If the Arcade isn't an option, I'd love to see Manny's land at Assembly.

Flew in from SEA Sunday night. Was after midnight and walking down B concourse we noticed a very energetic Southwest flight crew taking a selfie in front of a backdrop that said “Nashville Based Crew” or something like that. Was confused at the time but now it all makes sense. Yes, big news indeed!

Brentwood Capital’s offices used to be in the Roundabout Plaza building in midtown before they moved to Cool Springs a few years ago. Good to see them coming back

I think people either don’t know about the Murfreesboro Rd cell waiting lot or they refuse to use it because it’s inconvenient. I recently used the cell waiting lot on a Friday morning and was literally the only car in there. What I see happening is people coming to pick up are taking their chances circling the terminal loop or just pulling over on the sides of the loop road or wherever they can find a spot to tuck into, contributing to the congestion issues. I realize all the construction causes headaches, but I do think the airport authority could have put a bit more planning into the ingress/egress during construction. It’s a mess right now.

Going to be in Seattle and out on Whidbey Island in few weeks visiting our son. Can’t wait to get back!

Agree with you. The exit pay stations are using very old ticket stub/card reader equipment. They struggle to process newer credit cards with chips. Several times now I’ve had to cancel and start over with a non chip card. My assumption is the Airport is postponing modernizing the pay stations until the economy lots and interior loop are all redesigned after the Donelson Pike relocation.

Seems like that area was also used as staging for several other projects over the years.

Right. It was a freak weather event, a “bomb cyclone” that crippled most of the US with blizzards and local temperature drops of 50+ degrees in a few short hours. Meteorologists labeled it once in a generation. Your average Nashville winter freeze is not going to kill ivy or most of the other typically hardy plants that succumbed to this one event. Glad the insurance came through (my assumption) and replaced the One Hotel plantings.

Did they replace all the ivy or did it come back? The ivy in my yard looked completely dead after the December flash freeze but it has all come back and is now green and healthy.

In this context “infill” means new construction in a historic neighborhood. Usually built on an empty lot or replacing a non-contributing structure

Wonder how many overserved bachelorettes will stumble over those curbs

Crown envy with that shot. Thanks for posting. I haven't been to Charlotte in years. Would love to get back.

The blasted hole appears to be roughly a square and may be the base of the elevator pit. Agree the renderings don't appear to go much lower.

Agree would like to see the addition match the beauty of the church building. There’s an existing building in that foot print. It’s owned by the church but is separated by a driveway cut through. The building was a former bank and still contains the old walk in vault. It’s hard to tell from the renderings if that’s being incorporated or replaced. And very cool that you worked on the previous addition. Forgot to say that.

And it still is from this point all the way out 8th to the I-440 overpass. The recent Metro Water project has left the southbound lanes a mess.

That was fast. Four Seasons just opened in November.