The Westin Music City - 27 Floors/320', 452 Rooms

[SoundScan]

Maybe, just maybe? Nah, probably not.

[TNinVB]

Has anyone thought to walk by the site and ask one of the workers? 

 

[CenterHill]

51 minutes ago, SoundScan said:

Maybe, just maybe? Nah, probably not.

 

I was by earlier and saw several blue panels like that.  No way that's tinting.  It looks more like a placeholder for missing glass.    

 

[BnaBreaker]

I presume that if they were going to have tinted windows, they would tint them first and then install them rather than the other way around.  Right?

[MLBrumby]

There is a difference in the shading against the curtains. A wide swath in the middle makes the curtains look darker than the windows on the left side. My sense is that that's what will be continued across all the windows. 

[titanhog]

1 hour ago, MLBrumby said:

There is a difference in the shading against the curtains. A wide swath in the middle makes the curtains look darker than the windows on the left side. My sense is that that's what will be continued across all the windows. 

The darker part in the middle is just for the middle, per the original renders.

[arkitekte]

3 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

I presume that if they were going to have tinted windows, they would tint them first and then install them rather than the other way around.  Right?

This is correct. They would come tinted from the manufacturer. 

[TNinVB]

3 hours ago, arkitekte said:

This is correct. They would come tinted from the manufacturer. 

So what is your take on this? Do you think this is the finished product, and if so, do you think it was a design flaw?

[arkitekte]

1 hour ago, TNinVB said:

So what is your take on this? Do you think this is the finished product, and if so, do you think it was a design flaw?

It's not a design flaw. Architects typically stick with products that they're familiar with. Realistically when the project went to bid the developer saw the price tag for various shades of tinted glass for the curtain wall system and told the architecture firm to find a cheaper solution, which are interior window curtains. 

 

[titanhog]

With the few white panels that are installed (looks like something covering a broken window)...I'm thinking if they stick with the render, there will be more white panels installed.  What seems to be different is that the render has the "lighter" tinted windows in the middle...and darker on the outside...but it appears it's opposite on the building as it's built.

 

Nailed It. 

Edited September 13, 2016 by titanhog

[TheRaglander]

They were in process of installing more front-facing window features this morning.  I'm hopeful that they will do the right thing with the window tinting.  

[MLBrumby]

I think I'm ready to declare this one as "cheesy".  I never really found the renderings to be very attractive... and that podium just reminded me too much of the old suburban hotel towers with ground-level warehouse "ballrooms" that popped up all over the place in the 1970s and 80s.  

That said, I like to stay at Westins and have no doubt the rooms will be quite nice, if not very private. 

[VSRJ]

Hopefully JW and the other developments around the Westin will steal some of the spotlight.

[BnaBreaker]

2 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

I think I'm ready to declare this one as "cheesy".  I never really found the renderings to be very attractive... and that podium just reminded me too much of the old suburban hotel towers with ground-level warehouse "ballrooms" that popped up all over the place in the 1970s and 80s.  

That said, I like to stay at Westins and have no doubt the rooms will be quite nice, if not very private. 

Yes, I think there will come a day not too far into the future where the city of Nashville is going to regret approving all of these unnecessary 'sidecar' parking garages, ballrooms etc...that is a large piece of valuable land fronting a main thoroughfare that is essentially being taken up by a two story meeting hall that will be empty most of the time.

Edited September 13, 2016 by BnaBreaker

[TNinVB]

I think it's funny how the upper floor's don't have curtains and have been that way for a while. Perhaps in the effort of cutting costs they figured the height would be enough privacy for them. I'm sorry to sound like a broken record but God this building is horrendous. I hope it is blocked soon. 

17 hours ago, arkitekte said:

It's not a design flaw. Architects typically stick with products that they're familiar with. Realistically when the project went to bid the developer saw the price tag for various shades of tinted glass for the curtain wall system and told the architecture firm to find a cheaper solution, which are interior window curtains. 

 

Thanks for the insight. This is one crappy looking building. I don't think I have ever seen a high-rise anywhere in the world like this with clear glass and visible curtains. It looks so tacky. 

[titanhog]

Maybe they should have at least made the backside of the curtains the same color as the window tint? 

[Vrtigo]

I can appreciate the disdain people have for the Westin and the visible curtains, but it's really not as unusual as you guys are painting it to be. I mean, heck, I can see the curtains in the Omni too!

[BnaBreaker]

I mean, you can always see the curtains in a hotel if you focus hard enough.  The difference in The Westin is that it's a prominent feature of the building.  

[PruneTracy]

4 hours ago, BnaBreaker said:

Yes, I think there will come a day not too far into the future where the city of Nashville is going to regret approving all of these unnecessary 'sidecar' parking garages, ballrooms etc...that is a large piece of valuable land fronting a main thoroughfare that is essentially being taken up by a two story meeting hall that will be empty most of the time.

I don't think this arrangement is particularly egregious. The JW Marriott will front Eighth Avenue, and across from the Westin the Music City Center doesn't activate the street either due to the limitations of the floor plan. Consider also that from a vehicular perspective this segment is a transition into and out of the roundabout, at least up to Clark Place.

All told, if the parcels fronting the roundabout and filling out KVB are activated properly I don't think the ~75 yards of street frontage taken up by the Westin's ballrooms will be noticed by pedestrians. In any case there's a lot more density and activation potential for the hotel on the "back" of the property (facing Ninth Avenue), especially now that Zach Liff got his land deal from Metro for the Gulch pedestrian bridge. We may find in time that there are more peds using Clark Place than Eighth.

47 minutes ago, titanhog said:

Maybe they should have at least made the backside of the curtains the same color as the window tint? 

The rooms are already going to be hot given the lack of tinting, especially on the west side. If they absorbed any more sunlight by installing curtains with dark backing you might see guests sticking aluminum foil to the windows, make the whole thing look like a 30-story meth lab.

[TNinVB]

At least if they used pull down shades or the kind that slide on a track it would look better than drapes which can look crooked and messy. I Googled high rise buildings and hotels around the world with clear windows and didn't get much of a result. The few buildings I could find were not so tall and had shades. At least it was a cleaner look. 

[titanhog]

2 hours ago, Vrtigo said:

I can appreciate the disdain people have for the Westin and the visible curtains, but it's really not as unusual as you guys are painting it to be. I mean, heck, I can see the curtains in the Omni too!

The difference is that most windows on hotels have some type of reflective glass that pick up the sky and surrounding buildings so you don't really notice the curtains.  It appears the Westin's windows are just tinted...but not reflective.

[Neigeville2]

5 hours ago, TNinVB said:

At least if they used pull down shades or the kind that slide on a track it would look better than drapes which can look crooked and messy...

 I think it looks like the laundry.  One imagines disheveled furniture etc in those rooms.

[FromParkAveToTN]

It looks very third-world to me. I wouldn't stay there. Ew!

[VSRJ]

Maybe rooms will be cheaper.

 

Ha.

[titanhog]

Maybe this will be the first "Westin Exhibitionist Hotel?"  We'll draw a brand new tourist group to downtown.