Nashville Pictures (gardens, move to, parking)

[po-boy]

Wow, the Music City Center is really massive. I knew it was going to be big, and I have seen some of the older construction pics, but seeing it with the roof done really illustrates the scale of that thing.

TBH, it looks like it might be too large. It really dwarfs everything else. I hope they are able to do a lot to make it interactive with the street, otherwise it could end up being a barrier to foot traffic.

[MantaRay]

The sidewalk area is going to be significant, but especially on the north and east sides. If you go to the nashville music city center website and click on the construction camera, you can see that even part of the roof provides a canopy for pedestrians, so they could stand outside the building even when it's raining and not get wet.

Along the Korean Veterans Boulevard (south) side, not only are there sidewalks, but they have been designed with a small greenspace between the sidewalk and the street. So the sidewalks all the way around the center are ample, well thought out, and aesthetic.

One additional tidbit is that both 6th and 7th streets go through the structure, the structure providing a sort of tunnel, so you don't have to go all the way around the structure if you're trying to get from the Demonbreun St. side of it to the KVB side of it, or vice-versa. They are the two rectangular cut-outs in the side of the building, 1/3rd the way down and 2/3 the way down, that appear in the photos.

The reason it's not TOO large is because it was designed to accommodate the larger conventions, which Nashville was missing out on before due to insufficient capacity. I have read that some of the larger conventions have expressed significant interest and are booking the facility in the post-completion months. So its size already seems to have accomplished what it intended to in drawing in the larger customers.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by po-boy

Wow, the Music City Center is really massive. I knew it was going to be big, and I have seen some of the older construction pics, but seeing it with the roof done really illustrates the scale of that thing.

TBH, it looks like it might be too large. It really dwarfs everything else. I hope they are able to do a lot to make it interactive with the street, otherwise it could end up being a barrier to foot traffic.

Yes, it's definitely a big block of space.

It does dwarf everything in terms of footprint, but I think it won't look quite as dominating once some other development builds in around it.

As for interaction with the street, the KVB side (bottom of the picture) is supposed to have street level retail space. There are also plans to redo the rear of the arena to improve the back entrance, and I've heard they want to put retail along the street there, too (Demonbreun St). Hopefully that, along with streetscape improvements, will make it more inviting for pedestrian traffic.

[po-boy]

Originally Posted by MantaRay

One additional tidbit is that both 6th and 7th streets go through the structure, the structure providing a sort of tunnel, so you don't have to go all the way around the structure if you're trying to get from the Demonbreun St. side of it to the KVB side of it, or vice-versa. They are the two rectangular cut-outs in the side of the building, 1/3rd the way down and 2/3 the way down, that appear in the photos.

MantaRay, thanks for the info on the cut-outs/continuation of 6th and 7th streets. Do you know if those roads/cut-outs are going to be for the use of autos only or if they are going to try to make them pedestrian friendly as well?

One of the reasons I sometimes dislike mega-projects is b/c they can have the effect of creating a wall and effectively cutting off a section of town. Continuing the street grid is a great way to mitigate that effect.

Nashvols, as always thanks for the photographic updates. Didn't mean to hi-jack the thread with my questions.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by po-boy

MantaRay, thanks for the info on the cut-outs/continuation of 6th and 7th streets. Do you know if those roads/cut-outs are going to be for the use of autos only or if they are going to try to make them pedestrian friendly as well?

One of the reasons I sometimes dislike mega-projects is b/c they can have the effect of creating a wall and effectively cutting off a section of town. Continuing the street grid is a great way to mitigate that effect.

Nashvols, as always thanks for the photographic updates. Didn't mean to hi-jack the thread with my questions.

Actually, only 6th goes completely through. I think 7th is going to be a freight entrance on the KVB side.

6th will go under the exhibit hall, and will connect to the underground parking in the middle of the building. I imagine there will be sidewalks through the building there...but that doesn't necessarily make it "pedestrian friendly." We'll just have to see.

For more detail on the plans, look here:
http://www.nashvillemusiccitycenter....visionplan.pdf

Warning: it's a pretty large PDF file.

Here's a couple recent photos from the other side.

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by po-boy

MantaRay, thanks for the info on the cut-outs/continuation of 6th and 7th streets. Do you know if those roads/cut-outs are going to be for the use of autos only or if they are going to try to make them pedestrian friendly as well?

Well, like nashvols said, the sidewalks won't necessarily make them all that pedestrian-friendly per-se, but think of it like this- the grand exterior sidewalks are condusive for gathering, hanging out, etc. which would be reasonable considering the surrounding uses. The 6th and 7th street cut-throughs won't really have that same function- no reason for people to just be hanging out there, only traveling from Point A to Point B. So it really would not make a whole lot of sense to splurge on grand sidewalks there. Plus, it's not like you can put plantings in there either to make it aesthetic because you lose sunlight in tunnels.

The project stated somewhere that a primary use is for loading/unloading from vehicles to the convention interior, for example, food trucks delivering to a kitchen area, that kind of thing. Again, a purpose other than gathering or visually impressing. So the cut-through sidewalks should be much more basic than what will surround the center. So I suppose you could say the cut-throughs will have basic pedestrian-friendliness.

Here is a news story on the cut-throughs.

I've seen the Philadelphia example cited in the story myself. It's functional and has enough room to walk without having to be right at the curbside. There's enough room to wheel carts, etc. onto the sidewalk from temporarily parked vehicles and still leave walking room.

[nashvols]

Flickr: ravend's Photostream

[kcmo]

Well, here is some of what I came up with on my quick trip through Nashville. Nice city, have always liked it.

[ariesjow]

Excellent photos! Thank you so much for sharing these with us! You do some awesome work.

[DonCorleone]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.