Nashvilletitans

Well, I mean, I don't know the answer to that, but let me just put it this way. It seems to me that right now, while we have record low office vacancy combined with record high office demand combined with being one of the hottest cities in the Western Hemisphere, would be the ideal time for the city to go tall, if it's ever going to happen. Edited Tuesday at 8:38 PM by BnaBreaker

I am not surprised MDHA is planning to develop the corner lot in future. I was making the point that rolling mill hill project could leave green space in there master plan in stead at the end of there project add three high rise projects. Nashville down town is vast adding more green space is always forward thinking. One of the compromises I think MDHA should make is that mdha has revised there master plan to put in higher density (two high rise in there plan on KVB) and then they should leave the corner open space.

There are enough 30 story bldgs being proposed or built in sobro. Look at it this way shorter buildings on MDHA development site and near river just means taller builds say on other sites. Tall buildings on the river is not ideal anyway. And the corner lot on KVB and 1st be left undeveloped as open space is not so bad. Open space on MDHA development area is a good thing. The more green space the better. No one will propose open green space on private land. I hope they design a permanent green park with parking below if necessary on this corner lot since they are now proposing high rise on river. Rolling mill has lots of building and very little green space. KEEP IT GREEN

i hope you are not serious. multiply this by ten or twenty. Lets stop traffic. Honk horns.... better yet close half the streets and lets just drink on the streets......(now that could make sense) Nashville has carefully created some controls to create historic architectural continuity in the broadway district with building design guidelines. Then if one is able to create buildings on wheels (creating free real-estate) that can be whatever. Flatbed bars on wheels is not brilliant it should not be legal. it is not cute.... it is dangerous to the broadway area long term vision. It is this type of lack of respect for the historic charter of the area and buildings that leads to cheapening the broadway brand and that leads to things like tearing down the trail west building If your want to have a business catering to tourist on broadway rent a building. How would this be regulated. I thought metro created laws in broadway area for no cruising to improve traffic. This type of activity makes a mockery of the broadway district.

Was the hee haw trailer full of people pulled by a tractor moving on the city streets. or was it parked?

you are so right. there were so many great architectural buildings that are no more. I to wish to see more historical diversity within city and especially our downtown. Wow. Vauxhall Most of our new buildings architecturally do not attempt to have that level of detail or workmanship. I find it most interesting on this website that most of the talk and excitement is about scale of buildings and not about quality of a architecture of the new buildings. If Nashville is building 20 downtown high rises please lets demand more Vaux. Even our new buildings can have more sophisticated levels of design. 30 story building design and considerations are not only seen within the context of the skyline but by the pedestrian, and users of the building. Our new buildings can have the Vaux mentality but with modern functions and yes taller.

This is not good. Looks like a real road hazard. A way to make "trashy bucks" without having to spend millions to buy property or have a lease on broadway property. Hope it is not legally allowed on roads downtown. Hope they don't have a friend in our metro council

By the way May Hosiery did not go out of business. The business and buildings were sold to a larger mill with several facility locations. Eventually the nashville location was closed and the property was sold.

There are a few lesson we have learned from the tearing down entire large sections of nashville original core. To creat Creat urban historic districts -with boundaries such as broadway, 2nd ave, .... with design guidelines, demolition controls, and infill guidelines. Hopefully this zoning provides longterm protection of some of nashville's historic architecture. One interesting twist is that the broadway historic area property has become some of the most valuable property in downtown nashville yet it has the most design restrictions on it of any neighborhood downtown and has the lowest density allowed in all of downtown. WOW! A good trend for historic districts and historic zoning.

Most of the great old architectural buildings in downtown nashville were destroyed 50 plus years ago. Back then no one wanted old townhomes downtown (everyone moved to the sub burbs) they were falling apart so owners tore them down. Many of nashvilles oldest large buildings in the 40's, 50's were out dated and were replaced with new ones like our court house. It was't till the 70's after all the heavy urban renewal dust had settled and that we had fewer historic structures remaining that we realized we had to stop tearing down historic structures and we began renovating and protecting our old buildings. Yes a few buildings have been torn down since the 70's but not many. Nashville in the 70 and 80's have been promoting private owners to renovate historic structures with a fair amount of success. It was not long ago (70's and 80's) that owning or having a business on lower broadway was not cool -it had adult movie houses and hookers. Yet basically none of the buildings were town down. Nashville it is lucky it has the historic district. They could easily have been destroyed Over the years the historic comm has played an important role in preserving neighborhoods. We can call them hysterical but there role has been critical to the big picture even though it is frustrating dealing with them first hand. In terms of forward thinking government officials-My experience with that is that government officials like to make there mark with big projects of new projects, Titans stadium, The old convention center, downtown Library, bridgestone arena, the new convention center, riverfront park one and two.... Government officials have not been good at creating long term visions-they are good at creating short term legacies. Broadway happened by a series of events over a long period of time including many factors.

I agree that we should not limit development to only a couple of streets but that is not the case today. when we reach that point and may in a few years then we should carefully expand the high rise allowed area. There still are announcements weekly of proposed large projects within the core and this can continue for some time. The odds are soon the fast construction boom will slow down. Allowing nashville to adjust to this big change downtown and we can reevaluate the effects and continue on in this new direction.

I never implied that. The disconnect is that you are talking about One issue -walking.or say large parcels. There are many large amounts of land and parcels available for large scale projects currently zoned also remember some of the large scale projects being considered- Old convention center, Old Babtist Sunday School site, Markets street apartment site and more. Good city planning has many more issues to consider and try to solve for a better overall quality of life issue for nashville. Making decisions is complicated than just walking issue or telling a developer no because he is putting his good building concept at the wrong site at the wrong time. good city growth planning is about solving more than one problem at a time. Building the proper density in the right location can build for solutions of Mass transit routes in downtown and to downtown, access to parking, protecting Hisitorical areas, planning Openspace and green walkways, Qualitiy of life, establishing View corridors, accessing the river, grade changes, social interaction, residential communities, tourism...... Great cities and great city planning do not happen randomly. Nashville has a great opportunity now. And with what is going on in nashville now, where we are building and going to build say 30 new high rises in the core in such 10 year period of time takes even more planning. You are suggesting and I am agreeing that the core of nashville will be say be 10 times the area of the core was just 10 years ago. I am not in favor of banning all large scale projects -just locate them with some consideration and understanding that each building contributes to a better whole.

I understand that most people reading and posting on this site are willing to walk and that most people on this site are against having height restrictions. But you guys are not typical nashvillians. You are progressive thinkers. If nashville is going to have a successful mass transit system taking people to the core from the burbs they have to be able to get to there destination downtown without a car or they will not use the mass transit at all and will drive their own car. The more people that the downtown loop transit can convienant serve the more riders it can potentially attract. The future downtown loop cannot go everywhere in the down town loop. It makes sense that the more clustered the buildings downtown the more pople the downtown transit system can serve. it is already difficult enough to design a efficient downtown transit system. If you spread the buildings out everywhere as well as the perimeter good luck. remember we are trying to build a system from scratch. also add the fact that our downtown is going to get allot worse due to development to the transit system will be to slow for riders to want to get on it perhaps. we may need dedicated lanes for transit. these lanes cannot be everywhere to get to these new 30 story buildings. Look how difficult it was to get one transit concept down west end ave. Nashvillians said no to that. Also if You where to zone all the loop to high rises then there would be developers who would the new cheaper property and put buildings up randomly all over the place because the property is cheaper. The transition of this happening is not good urban planning. There would be no control. Most developers do not care about good urban planning. They need land to put a building on that there numbers work they make money. They are sellers not planners. Nashville would have lots of bad development. Once it is built nashville is stuck with it. I would not trust 40 urban developers to determine to a cohesive urban plan. All they care about is there project and getting the numbers to work and sell. They do not have to worry about the after effect of the project. I think good planning has better chance. It is about quality of life not just building 40 buildings anywhere. Transit is a difficult solution to solve and takes a good plan. Ideally you design a transit concept and put density centers within that system.

Nashville future mass transit will need to deliver people to the core. If the core is so large with buildings somewhat randomly all over the large core then people will need transportation within the core to get to work or play. it will be to difficult to design mass transit in the core if densities are not grouped in some way. If you allow density in rings or sections then transportation can deliver people to those density. There is no rush to increase the density area at this time. Just a few years ago our core was very small now it has grown maybe by ten fold in size. we should fill this in before expanding so soon.

I agree we need to get people to walk. And I am sure you could walk two or three miles but that is not what the definition of walkable is especially in 90 degree weather. If you feel this way then where is the new boundary for thirty stories. Doesn't it make sense to keep taller building close to the core. Especially from the concept of servicing the core with mass transit.

I guess I am in the minority but I am not in favor of 30 story buildings this far from the core. Of course the owners of the property are in favor of this because it makes their potential land value double triple or more in value if you can go vertical. Hate to be negative on big development but there already are so many parcels that are already zoned for high rise. My biggest concern is how can nashville come up with a cohesive bus transit concept for downtown if 30 story buildings can randomly be almost anywhere in such a large area. This area is clearly a random area on the perimeter of the core. Our downtown should be somewhat walkable and this is to far from church street , state capital and even broadway. If this area can be high rise then why not let every parcel within the interstate loop be high rise. This would be a terrible precedent.

How nice would it had been if nashville had a opens space master plan for downtown. Imagine if we had green way trails(have a few) along the river dotted with parks on the river (have a few) trail could go from north nashville to rolling mill project (even across river). then turn green walking trails to the interior of downtown at KVB, broadway, courthouse.... Pocket parks could be strategically located in the interior of downtown as well and connected with a green walking route. How nice would this be for downtown residences for walking and jogging. Nashville has all the pieces to do ideas like this but it takes commitment and planning. We have some of the commitment but I feel we never come up with a long range plan.

I did not attend or watch the planning comm meeting and am in favor of the height issue for the proposed buildings at market street apartments. My concern is car movement in sobro especially 2nd ave south in the future after all these buildings are built. And when the other parking lots have highrises in the future. I have no concerns with having heavier traffic in general but I am concerned that all the intersections in the sobro especially near the river on 1st ave s, 2nd ave s and 3rd ave s will become grird locked. rush hour with all the workers leaving the office building, residences coming home to there urban apartments. On a friday saturday night with events and tourist on broadway. broadway closed for events. how will the cars and people get into the area. I am not familiar with the permiting process when related to traffic issues. but doesn't traffic and parking have to review this project and approve. My guess is every intersection within a few blocks of this building will go to an F rating due to the addition of this project Is this a problem for this building being approved.

I do not think Lowe ever listed the project he had it under contract to buy with Swerdling

I believe we need high density in down town loop. but not all property should be high density. I just believe developers should buy property with an understanding what the current zoning allows. Build what the zoning allows. If the developer wants a taller building than property is zoned for then don't buy it. There is a lot of property that is available for tall buildings. Buy within what the city plan allows and not change it because a developer bought a cheaper property not zoned and then gets an upgrade in zoning rights. Stick within the master plan. Every street in the downtown loop should not be the same. The downtown loop is large and can have different character in some areas. Start putting 25 story buildings in 8 story areas and that changes things and not necessarily for the better. I love tall buildings but a hierarchy of building heights based on a plan and a location is better. I do not want nashville to change into a downtown of just scattered high rises. Somewhat random growth is not desirable. We are not New York City where every property needs to be tall. Also if some properties have lower zoning rights they should be cheaper to purchase and develop which also creates an opportunity for a variety of development, which also is good for a vibrant downtown.

You say there there needs to be a better traffic plan. I am not aware of any traffic plan that truly addresses the density we are quickly creating. I would not be surprised that areas will become grid locked once all the building are occupied. And finding a parking space may become very difficult. and if you want to get around in the midtown without a car -good luck on that plan. Where are the transportation lanes to get people in and out of town. It already takes perhaps 15 to 30 minutes longer to commute many places in nashville. what happens when traffic hardly moves at rush hour. Some of this is avoidable if we we build according to a plan. But building base on demand is a bad plan unless you are selling your property. I am excited as much as anyone about the growth of nashville and downtown nashville but I will be sad if this growths turns us into Nashlanta.

I have a problem with not having some height limitations on some areas of downtown/new midtown area. We cannot let market or the owner of the property be the one to determine height of buildings. Just a few years ago we had height and floor area limitations(FAR 5 to 1) that kept all but a few downtown areas short in height. then with the downtown code those old ideas got tossed out. Now many areas of downtown can be 8 floors minimum or 12 and many 25 to 30 floors. There are now 100's to 1000's of parcels that can have very tall buildings. If there is not a master plan of heights limits then towers will pop up everywhere. No one is even talking about what this does to traffic, parking, and transportation and quality of life to our city. More and taller is not always better if it is not planned. As far as I see it no one has any idea of how traffic and parking and transportation visions will deal with this fast vertical growth. Once we built we are stuck with the negatives they may creat. We can build density but we need ideas to deal with the negative impact of fast unplanned growth. Be aware that by by changing properties from FAR of 5 to 1 ratios to 25 floors makes the property valuable for sale purposes(zoning rights). This benefits owners of properties and developers who want to make quick sales of condos etc. But where is our traffic and parking and transportation plans for any of these projects. Sometimes we need to say no to projects on some locations.

the turner family property (the acme building and adjacent building and rear parking lot) is under a long term land lease with the architects that occupy the property. the small parking lot on that block facing 2nd ave s is owned by frank may and is the proposed boutique hotel and restaurants.

Unfortunately in the next few years when say 20 new high rise build are built we will have a few ugly ducklings. It is even worse when they are located on prominent sites. And then if it is 15 stories tall - Puke .... Nashville needs to praise the better architectural developments and trash talk the poor quality projects. I think is is good to trash the ugly esthetics of Hyatt Place.