Save The Cordell Hull and The Ben West

[captainwjm]

The option of ripping out the Central Services building (I had to look it up - it's the one-story structure on 5th with the unused plaza on top that sits between Cordell Hull and the John Sevier building)

Central Services is actually 3 stories and connects the basement and 1st and 2nd floors of John Sevier to Cordell Hull.  It currently houses the Office of Vital Records [birth and death certificates] on the 1st floor. The state employee health clinic, meeting rooms, and [until it closed due to most state departments being moved out of CHB] an employee cafeteria on the 2nd.  The basement houses mechanical rooms that include dedicated computer servers for some tenants in both CHB and Sever, and emergency back-up generators for both Sevier and CHB.  Central Services is the problematic portion of the CHB-Sevier complex with a leaky roof and a flooding basement.  Tearing it down makes sense, but the location of the computer servers and back-up generators make the decision more complicated.

[CenterHill]

Central Services is actually 3 stories and connects the basement and 1st and 2nd floors of John Sevier to Cordell Hull.  It currently houses the Office of Vital Records [birth and death certificates] on the 1st floor. The state employee health clinic, meeting rooms, and [until it closed due to most state departments being moved out of CHB] an employee cafeteria on the 2nd.  The basement houses mechanical rooms that include dedicated computer servers for some tenants in both CHB and Sever, and emergency back-up generators for both Sevier and CHB.  Central Services is the problematic portion of the CHB-Sevier complex with a leaky roof and a flooding basement.  Tearing it down makes sense, but the location of the computer servers and back-up generators make the decision more complicated.

Thanks for the info. I've never been in that building.

[smeagolsfree]

It's better than losing the Hull for sure.

[MLBrumby]

I think the Sevier building is a gem.  Glad that's not in the mix here. 

[dmillsphoto]

Good news:

 

 Retweeted by TheCityPaper

Phil Williams ‏@NC5PhilWilliams  17m

In post-meeting interview, @speakerharwell made clear: Cordell Hull building WILL be saved. Now just a matter of following right procedures.

[BnaBreaker]

Great news indeed!!!!

[Paramount747]

Yes!!!!!!!!

[smeagolsfree]

Thanks for posting Daniel. I wanted to make sure it had been. I was with WW when I heard the news and we were very happy to say the least.

 

Four great bits of news today.

Kimpton hotels

24 hour diner

Thompson Hotels

AND THE HULL has been saved.......

[captainwjm]

Phil's tweet is not entirely correct [you're shocked, I'm sure].  The Building Commission referred the issue to a sub-committee with authority to act.  Now, in actuality, the most probable outcome is that the building will be saved and renovated, but it is not a done deal, yet.

[dmillsphoto]

Phil's tweet is not entirely correct [you're shocked, I'm sure].  The Building Commission referred the issue to a sub-committee with authority to act.  Now, in actuality, the most probable outcome is that the building will be saved and renovated, but it is not a done deal, yet.

 

Haven't had time to read up - but suffice it to say my chin hurts from my jaw dropping at Phil not being correct.

[nashmoney]

Here is the article in the NBJ:

 

State will renovate, not demolish, Cordell Hull office building for $70M

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/morning_call/2014/08/state-will-renovate-not-demolish-cordell-hull.html

[Vrtigo]

BOOM!

 

Er...wait. Poor choice of words. Great news, though!

[captainwjm]

Again, the Bizjournal article is not quite correct.  The administration's current plan was referred to a committee of the State Building Commission for further consideration. Although the likely result is that CHB will be renovated, it is not yet a done deal.

[captainwjm]

$40 million to renovate Cordell Hull in new budget proposal

 

https://www.nashvillepost.com/blogs/postpolitics/2015/3/31/budget_amendment_includes_state_museum_funding_cordell_hull_renos_resto

[MLBrumby]

Looks like Speaker Harwell is going to save the Cordell Hull.... in a move that will make it the office building for the legislators.  

 

From NP... https://www.nashvillepost.com/blogs/postpolitics/2015/4/22/harwell_cordell_hull_to_be_legislature_s_new_home

 

From the article:  By 2017, what is currently known as Legislative Plaza could become a parking lot and the once-forsaken Cordell Hull Building will be the new home for House and Senate legislators’ offices, committee rooms and the press suite.

That’s according to House Speaker Beth Harwell, who said the move will be more cost-effective than trying to repair problems in the Legislative Plaza. “It’s a really neat building, and we’re going to try to restore it so it really looks good. The outside won’t look much different,” Harwell said.

 

I'd suggest use of skylights! 

[smeagolsfree]

Thanks for posting ML. I knew about this last week and forgot about it. A much better use for the CH.

[BnaBreaker]

"Legislative Plaza could become a parking lot"

 

WHAT?!?!?!!?!?!????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Someone please tell me that I'm misinformed here.  Please keep me from losing my S***.  SURELY I have it wrong.  Because this is what I think of when I think Legislative Plaza:
 

[fieldmarshaldj]

^No, no. Not the plaza. The legislative offices below the plaza would be converted to parking.

[BnaBreaker]

^No, no. Not the plaza. The legislative offices below the plaza would be converted to parking.

 

Phew!!  Now I can breathe.  It didn't make sense to me that they'd destroy that beauty, especially if it were the compromise to being able to save the Cordell Hull, but I just wasn't sure because that's what I've always known it as.  Thank you for clearing that up for me. 

[donNdonelson2]

There is already parking underneath the offices below the plaza, so this plan might add one (possibly two) levels of additional parking spaces.

[Nathan_in_DC]

I've always wondered who thought it a good idea to make all the state legislative offices effectively underground. You have the obvious problems with moisture and climate, but the place is just depressing because of the lack of outside lighting. Were they trying to make it a bunker or something? Because that's the only reason I can think you'd build down and not up.

[Guest]

I've always wondered who thought it a good idea to make all the state legislative offices effectively underground. You have the obvious problems with moisture and climate, but the place is just depressing because of the lack of outside lighting. Were they trying to make it a bunker or something? Because that's the only reason I can think you'd build down and not up.

The era of 1960's and 1970's architecture or urban design. Huge plazas with sunken courts and now vacant stores. Underground office buildings of utter misery. Parking decks of total terror.

[rookzie]

I've always wondered who thought it a good idea to make all the state legislative offices effectively underground. You have the obvious problems with moisture and climate, but the place is just depressing because of the lack of outside lighting. Were they trying to make it a bunker or something? Because that's the only reason I can think you'd build down and not up.

 

 

The era of 1960's and 1970's architecture or urban design. Huge plazas with sunken courts and now vacant stores. Underground office buildings of utter misery. Parking decks of total terror.

 

I believe that there also had been a combined motive to not completely block the overlook of the state-owned War Memorial, when it had still been called the W-M Plaza and Deaderick and Capitol Blvd had run through to their original end points.  It was a common trend with a number of capital cities to maintain some kind of open-air or quadrangle "court" during those planning days.  Especially with a state house, in particular this one at the hilltop, the state really does not seem to want to block it's cigar-smoking vistas from the "crow's nest".

-==-

[markhollin]

From today's Nashville Post:

The Nashville office of Skanska announced today it has signed a $45 million contract with the state of Tennessee to renovate and expand the Cordell Hull State Office building and adjacent facilities. The construction project includes exterior renovations to Cordell Hull, located in downtown Nashville and built in the early 1950s. The construction team oversaw the demolition of the central services building that connected Hull and the John Sevier State Office Building. Skanska is also overseeing the construction of an underground state capitol building connector. Work on that project is expected to complete in late 2017.

[markhollin]

Updates on expansion/renovation of 65-year-old Cordell Hull state office building.

Looking NW from 5th Avenue North (near the Municipal Auditorium entrance):

 

Looking west from 5th Avenue North towards the State Capital on the hill:

 

Looking SE from 5th Avenue North: