Baronakim

They, like so many chains, are in process of training their future checkout clerks. I mean US. That's what self-checkout is all about.....doing away with their staff costs at the register. Why pay someone when they can force the customer to do it for free?Whenever I am faced with no human clerk and must rely on self checkout machines, I do one of two procedures. I either loudly berate the store so as many other customers as possible can see my displeasure..."If if wanted to check out groceries, I wouldn't have gone to college!!" or some like statement. Or alternately, I will push my full basket to the self service cashier and tell him he can put it all back on the shelf... and walk out. That is MY training program for these stores.

You can see that there is an entrance at grade clearly in the third rendering above. Obviously the parking levels will be served by elevators like the old Harris Teeter (now Kroger)mezzanine on 21st Avenue. I wonder how they will keep carts from exiting the upper entrance and walking off to the apartments down the street or just parking them in the landscaping.

The ones I saw were certainly not in Nesbit, nor on glass block pedestals as the website photo shows. Something must have happened to the business in Nesbit. These must certainly be them but they are now in Tunica Resorts. Nesbit is about 50 miles east of their present location Someone painted black swim trunks on them...too bad I didn't get a photo of them. Definitely the store they are in front of is out of business. I wish someone could get them for Nashville before they are destroyed or stolen.

Yes, I know. That is why I stated that I would like for Tennessee to change it as other states have it in my post... a constitutional change is not impossible. You should have been around when Nashville got booze by the drink back in the sixies. Legalizing gambling is just a final step in a long journey. There is a process to change the state constitution.

Bear with me guys, I'm in architectural daydream mode and can be rather outrageous sometimes. I wasn't sure if the CBD thread was the right place to bring this up as my idea is half on the east bank. This was a concept I had many years ago, but I think it is maybe possible now with the vitality of our city. The Metro government, as we grow rapidly, will need more and more space. I think a broad stepped civic plaza filling the space over the river between the 2 existing bridges with a new midrise civic center built above bridge levels on the east bank would be awesome. It would even be possible to connect an occupied level below the plaza to the current courthouse plaza. IMO it would unify the two banks in a way a bridge could not. Consider the huge improvement for pedestrians crossing the river and the amount of parking that could replace the surface lots. I think such a plaza across the Cumberland would be architecturally bold enough to distinguish our city among the older metropolitan regions of the east coast. Hope I haven't spread this too deep.

I was wondering about possible uses of the East bank brownfield scrap metal yards between the bridges. I know we have had several design studies for the East bank, but it has been some number of years since the last ones. A fair number of proposals was a park/ wetland usage, but I professionally feel that the necessary excavation of the contaminated earth would be prohibitively costly unless financed by deep pockets (i.e. the Feds). In my estimation, the most practical solution would be to utilize the deep excavation for an underground garage, whether this would possibly replace the vast asphalt lots for the stadium or some other use that could handle periodic flooding with minimal damage. Excavation of a huge area and refilling it with earth is not cost effective. 3 or 4 thousand parking spaces could probably only require 2 levels or so underground. I would love to see the lots around Nissan Field freed up and developed with restaurants and lodging or apartments/ condos. Another daydream I have is that Tennessee would finally join this century and change its' constitution to allow casino gambling as other nearby states have. Can y'all envision 2 or 3 30+ story casino hotels built over a shared parking plaza, the top parking floors of which could stay above any flood level anticipated. How the money would roll in!

I was in Tunica last Sunday and was very surprised to see a pair of the snowball-throwing polar bears in front of a closed down sweet shop out in a nowhere area of one of the many access roads around the casinos. I mean EXACT statues like the ones Edgehill has off 12thS and uses as a neighborhood logo. Have these historic bears been copied and reproduced widely? If not, these two in Tunica may be from the original Custard Ice cream business back years ago. Does anyone think it would be a good idea for someone in the community to secure these for relocation to Edgehill?

Not very likely as the Greenway relocation would be at the grade level that was at the top of the stone wall.

It is my understanding that Metro is planning to widen 11th Ave due to the additional traffic expected by Asurion and other Highwoods developments TBD. Has there been any designwork published showing r.o.w.and sidewalk improvements?

I suppose the tiny switchyard office by the Demonbreum Viaduct might possibly go away too? That would be welcome news for the proposed hotel there.

Perhaps it has gone unnoticed, but I am seeing possible activity at the OTHER end of the Greer site. A couple of years ago Metro devastated the mature tree cover at Fort Negley to 'solve' a problem with a massive homeless encampment on the East slope. This did open up wonderful vistas of Nashville skyline, but I regret the loss of so much green forest so close to the city core. Adjacent to the Metro property, there are several business structures against the CSX tracks. One of these has requested a zoning hearing (the Global Market) and apparently wants to rework it as a restaurant/bar venue. Metro police has again cleared out a homeless camp behind it very recently which may indicate there will be some activity (perhaps parking lot expansion) there. Across Oak Street down the spur (Bass Street) there are some very old buildings that are very hidden that included a saw works(whatever that is). This is behind an iron gate. There seems to be a substantial cleanup of the scrapyard at the base of the hill by these establishments that has occurred since the clearing of the trees. Would anyone know if these areas are being considered for some entertainment reuse like the old buildings at nearby Ewing Street (TN Brewworks, the Winery, etc.)?

I somewhat disagree. I nominate Gallatin Pike from the railroad overpass in Inglewood to Old Hickory Blvd in Madison. In 50 years, the only significant changes there was demolition of the Inglewood Theatre, the Jim Reeves estate and the Isaac Litton High School. For the most part, these were the only suitable noteworthy structures for any hope of reuse. Most of what remained is junk and what was built is junk. A time traveler from 50 years ago would scarcely notice changes in the streetscape other than a marked increase in abandoned stores and businesses. Is there any hope of redemption for this major artery's future? Even Dickerson Pike has seen reasonable development and it was ALWAYS Nashville's notorious stepchild.

Agreed. It is depressingly prosaic. However, Belmont makes up a great deal for Lipscomb's deficiencies. I am somewhat prejudiced as I work for the design firm which has produced many recent Belmont projects.

So pretty much, the switching function of the rail yards is going to be reduced to 2 main tracks straight though? Very canny of CSX to cash in on the immensity of value of their property if that is the case. Implicitly, this would seem to also open up possibilities for the other CSX slices to be utilized for major development . I specifically refer to the arc of vacant land by the tracks directly in front of the central area of the Nashville Yards boundry. That would be such an improvement with the widening of the park strip. Also the land across the tracks hopefully will be better utilized as we have been discussing per se regarding the Greenway relocation.

Speaking of valuable property, what about the wedge of property next to the rail yard at the south end of the Gulch behind Pine Street Flats? I am surprised that someone has not proposed something there similar to the Bento Box over on 4th or even a tall project along the lines of Stanza. The elevated limestone wall above the restaurants and bars would be an outstanding location.

Yes that would be quite cool; rather like the giant holograms in the Ghost in the Shell"film...only lower tech. I, however, did not propose an artsy mural but rather a trompe d'oriel treatment for it to appear like the fascade of the other 2nd Avenue buildings. Actually the illusion would not have to be even painted all the way to the top, only as high as the height of existing buildings of the streetscape. This form of art can be executed to quite realistically.

I wonder. Will the large berms be removed when the Greenway is relocated? They do take up a deal of valuable real estate and only have served to shield the apartments from the unpleasant view and noise of the rail yard. None of the other developments on the Gulch have berms to mitigate sound, so i believe the primary purpose was view shielding. That is soon to change with Nashville Yards now becoming a completely desirable view. The railroad area will be cleaned up substantially. I wonder if it would be possible to get CSX to allow something like artificial turf or an industrial equivalent between the remaining tracks rather than the bare gravel and earth there now. That would be a significant change of view for all the properties adjacent considering the huge investments to develop them. I think doing that would also be a great improvement at the new pedestrian bridge too.

I have seen the relocation in renderings and it is to be relocated along that new property line. That is why I think the area behind the berm at the Greenway dog park may be a reconnect possibility, but I have seen no indication of the property ownership currently.

Unless my recollection is incorrect, the area between the Greenway and the apartment strip on 11th, was supposed to be a phase 2 for the apartments. Whether or not the Grainger building is part of that, I am not sure. 10 years or so ago, that whole slope was a network of homeless tents. I assume that the existing part of the Greenway where the dog yard is now will be redone to reconnect with the relocation of the Greenway caused by the Highwoods construction on the other side of the viaduct. I assume that the new path will be on the other side of the berms shielding the railyard because of a substantial elevation difference currently handled by a ramp . It was not too long ago that the path of the Greenway at the foot of the (now demolished) limestone wall was a tangle of small trees, poison ivy and discarded stolen property.

Correct.

A phonetic similarity for PUNishing you. Actually spelled haggis....It is a baked sheep's belly stuffed with savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock. In botanical terms, the Latin "hagus' is the nomenclature for 'beech'.

You have a rather peculiar sense of humour Bna. Do you even know what a hagus is or what it tastes like?

This would be a strong candidate for a trompe l'oeil paint job to make it appear to be a (albeit tall) building of matching period detailing . With all the mural art around Nashville now, all four facades could transform this ugly building into a compatible look for Second Avenue. Even better would be for someone to build a reasonably scaled reconstruction replacing the burned down building at the surface parking lot at right. Looks like a smiling portrait of someone missing a front tooth, IMO.

Apparently the program WILL NOT allow me to correct the spelling of the word "hagus" which should begin with the letter 'f' no matter how many times I try. Some dogooder jerk spellcheck-nazi must have assumed I was attempting a homosexual criticism and was too ignorant to program an allowance for Latin terms which only sound like hate speech.

I apologize for resurrecting this topic, but I have been out of town for a week and missed it. I am trained in landscape architecture field secondary to my profession as an architect. Decades ago I designed for Waller in Brentwood, so I am quite familiar with botanical species and their appropriate plantings. While Yoshino cherries are quite lovely, I have always considered their planting at the river terraces a very poor choice. The present ones are now quite ragged and mismatched and near the end of their viability. Transplanting any of them regardless of the season is a joke. They would be much more appropriate as a planting in Centennial Park or at the new state museum. All of the ones you see so famously in D.C. and Japan are not planted in widely paved plazas strung with lighting strings or right adjacent to lounging pedestrians, homeless or otherwise. In the present setting, they look like crap. They only look halfway good in a short blooming period where they can look spectacular. Street trees in this location need to be bigger and higher branching. God forbid some idiot would take this as advocating Bradford pears. This should have species that are street climate suitable and will remain fairly matched in height and shape for a long time. While native species are quite admirable, the plaza environment is anything but even close to an environment approaching native growing conditions. The criteria for this plaza(and many other Nashville street locations) should be hardiness, abuse tolerance and stateliness. I would suggest lime trees (tilia cordata), Elm Zelchova (z. carpinfolia) or Beech (hagus species) These species grow quite well here. You can see limes in the Cool Springs area at the traffic islands at Walgreens. There are a couple of mature zelcovas on West End at Ruth Chris (though they have not been maintained well at their base grilles) . There was a magnificent beech (regretably destroyed for Vandy dorm construction) at West End & 21st. If there was a more generous planting area, I might suggest magnolias (many of which shamefully have been lost in Nashville in recent years), though they are messy leaf and seed pod litterers, or dawn redwood, which were once native (before the last Ice Ages) here. At any rate, y'all can gripe about losing urban green space here and there all day....what I know is that compared with Nashville 50 years ago, we live in a freakin' forest. Get over it.