Inside 440 - Berry Hill, Midtown, Vanderbilt, 12S, WeHo, Fairgrounds, etc.

[FrankNash]

What a great spot for a flatiron building.

[smeagolsfree]

I haven't been able to check the board in a couple days.  I hopped on excited about Richard Branson coming to town, then I saw they had mowed down a home that I admired almost daily!!  What a let down, surely this home could have been moved into one of the surrounding neighborhoods.

I wish they had at least done architectural salvage on the house. I am thinking this is going to get fast tracked if opening in 2016, so there may not have been time for salvage or they wanted the owner to take it down at their expense and they just didn't care.

[Paramount747]

Hate to see the old house go, but I am trying to picture it and where exactly this will go. In any case, this is great for the city. With this hotel whether 12 stories or 20 you may wonder why Alex Palmer was passed up again. This Virgin Hotel would have been perfect for West End, but I guess you build where you can buy land.

[FrankNash]

Thanks to Alex Palmer and the car lots on Broadway our signature avenue now is Division/Demonbreun st. from Buckingham project to the new riverfront park. Let the tourist have Broadway.

[smeagolsfree]

Thanks to Alex Palmer and the car lots on Broadway our signature avenue now is Division/Demonbreun st. from Buckingham project to the new riverfront park. Let the tourist have Broadway.

Funny how that is working out. William and I was talking about Demonbreun yesterday and how much is planned for that street. If everything gets built, then you will have a good mile and a half of good sized buildings with a lot of height.

At some point the West End, Broadway split will develop. It is just a matter of time before someone offers Lee Beaman, "an offer he can't refuse", for his property. My suggestion is that he just develops the property himself and moves the dealership out of the core. The taxes have to be killing him and at some point he may not be able to compete with other dealerships.

The Palmer property will develop at some point, weather it is ASP or someone else. It is shovel ready for sure.lol

[titanhog]

What's crazy is that Branson is bragging about "Music City" and having the much desired "One Music Square West" address...but Music Row is becoming less and less music oriented all of the time.  May as well just go back to "17th and Division."

[farm_boy]

^^^That has been my concern also. The world famous "Music Square" is quickly becoming just another residential neighborhood

[Neigeville2]

About the only thing anyone has done right on Music Row is RCA (now Sony) buying the "Home for the Aged" building at 17 & 18th and Horton and re-purposing it as record label offices...giving it a second life.  Too bad this antebellum home couldn't have been re-used.

Oh wow.  You could be right.

 

I love that "Home for the Aged" building with its enormous staircase entrance.  Every time I go by there I think, how were the aged supposed to get in there?

But I'm so sad about 1 music row, this lovely old building and its mature trees made such a great contrast to the modern buildings around it.  This is what gives a city the air of history amid growth.  I don't want to live in a museum, but I want a city that has the old and the new side by side.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Neigeville2

[titanhog]

I've lived here 20 years...and I've seen our city allow so many old, historic and architecturally significant structures to be demolished for Wal Marts...Walgreens...etc...and many have been antebellum homes that can never be replicated.  It's just like everyone now wanting a "Music Row" address.  Well...it's called Music Row because it's mostly music business offices, labels, publishing companies and studios...but one by one, they're disappearing and being replaced by non-musical entities.  Plus...you have Vandy, Belmont and the city squeezing it on every side.

[UTgrad09]

It seems to me that the new Music Row is in Berry Hill.

[titanhog]

It seems to me that the new Music Row is in Berry Hill.

Yep.  The small, independent publishers just can't afford the Music Row address much longer.

[timmay143]

Music Row will always be Music Row, regardless of what's there.  Unless it is some major change, like a landfill.  Kind of like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  They rarely deal with "jet propulsion," if at all, anymore!

 

Although, it is still a tragedy for the loss of those structures.  One day, one day...

Edited April 18, 2014 by timmay143

[bwithers1]

Music Row itself was a mid-century Urban Renewal contrivance.  Before that, 16th and 17th Aves were just part of Edgehill.

[titanhog]

Music Row itself was a mid-century Urban Renewal contrivance.  Before that, 16th and 17th Aves were just part of Edgehill.

But we can say that about many parts of the city.  However...Music Row now has a history that can forever be attached to a portion of why our city is called "Music City, USA."  Personally, my only concern is that we eventually drive out all of the "music" from that area.  Maybe that's not a bad thing in some people's eyes...but it is part of our city's identity.  

[FrankNash]

As far as this area being recognized as where" Music City" gets it's name I feel Virgin Atlantic Hotel corporation with a music history located at 1 Music Row W at the entrance of music row will say more than what was there before. David Chase the local partner said " Historically and significant items, including the bricks, were identified, cataloged and saved before demolition. Our intent is to reuse as much of those materials in the hotel as we can, I'm donating to the local historical preservationist's society". I know this isn't the same as saving the house but, it is a small gesture. Also, the hotel will have a music theme with a recording studio. IMO with cool signage this will help people visiting Nashville realize this is the entrance to music row.

[titanhog]

As far as this area being recognized as where" Music City" gets it's name I feel Virgin Atlantic Hotel corporation with a music history located at 1 Music Row W at the entrance of music row will say more than what was there before. David Chase the local partner said " Historically and significant items, including the bricks, were identified, cataloged and saved before demolition. Our intent is to reuse as much of those materials in the hotel as we can, I'm donating to the local historical preservationist's society". I know this isn't the same as saving the house but, it is a small gesture. Also, the hotel will have a music theme with a recording studio. IMO with cool signage this will help people visiting Nashville realize this is the entrance to music row.

So...they're going to have someone go through all of those bricks in that pile and save them?  To me, it looked like they just brought in machinery and knocked the entire house over into a pile yesterday.  If they actually saved and cataloged anything, it must have been on the inside before the demolition.

 

I do hope what he says is correct, though...and not just talk to tamp down any adverse reactions.

 

And...just to make sure no one misunderstands me...I'm just making remarks about Music Row in its entirety and how many of the structures are being demolished.  More than anything, this home was a historic structure that probably should have been preserved a long time ago and made into a showplace.  

 

I do agree that this hotel will probably be a great addition in many ways...but it can't replace the charm of an antebellum home.  Let's hope that Branson's team will actually place something iconic, yet appropriate, in that space. 

Edited April 18, 2014 by titanhog

[smeagolsfree]

I don't recall any workers being on site before hand. They coulda have been, but what I saw was a large back/earth mover knocking the home down in large hunks. They were spraying the brick down because of the dust. This house was standing in the morning and by noon was just a pile of bricks. I didn't see any care taken with structure as it was coming down.

They could have saved the doors, windows, and who knows what else before wrecking it.

[Hey_Hey]

I saw three guys there the day before demo. They were taking a break on the front steps. They looked like construction guys. It piqued my interest, but I never thought they would tear it down the next day.

[Vrtigo]

A closer look:

1 Music Square West by vertigo labs, on Flickr

 

1 Music Square West by vertigo labs, on Flickr

 

1 Music Square West by vertigo labs, on Flickr

 

This view will be very different in a year or so:

 

Music Row Roundabout by vertigo labs, on Flickr

 

I couldn't help but laugh when I saw this old studio surrounded here like this:

 

Demonbreun Lofts by vertigo labs, on Flickr

 

Demonbreun Lofts by vertigo labs, on Flickr

[fieldmarshaldj]

^Seeing that pile of rubble just makes me ill. Absolutely no excuse for it. If they wanted the property cleared that badly, they could've relocated the house.

[TNinVB]

It doesn't seem like a very large plot of land. I wonder if the hotel will have significant height? Still a shame about the loss of the house. I wish I could remember it.

[titanhog]

I sure hope they save and reuse that brick.  Those bricks are nearly 2 hundred years old and would make such a cool statement somewhere on the property of the new hotel.  Also...if they could prove that the brick was made using slave labor, it could be a great teaching tool, as well.  A reminder of the past and how far we've progressed since those days.

[timmay143]

Nice shots.  It looks like Musica is grabbing the crane in that 4th one!

[smeagolsfree]

Engineering folks on site of the 22nd and State project. The lot is now closed. I have it mismarked on the map and will fix, but this is at the NW corner of 22nd and State.

 

Cool neon adorns the Park Central corner at night.

 

Market on the corner of 19th and Charlotte is now closed. This is where 1818 will be. There may be more from WW as a blog. I noticed this the other day while walking.

 

The Louisa apartments look as if they are ready for a rebuild after the fire. Property fenced and cleaned. Parking deck remains.

 

Construction trailer @ the Lincoln properties site on Charlotte.

[leggy77]

That old studio is "Country International Records" surrounded by the Demonbreun Lofts .  Joy Ford's property, she won in the eminent domain battle, it was really worth the battle.  Plus they haven't done anything in the building for years, now the value of the property value has dropped a good bit I imagine.  The press conference below was probably the only time the lights have been on in years in that building.  She won the battle but lost the war.

 

Edited April 21, 2014 by leggy77