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Best Tennessee Skyscraper


ironchapman

What is TN's best skyscraper?  

144 members have voted

  1. 1. What is TN's best skyscraper?

    • BellSouth (Batman) Buildimg (Nash)
      66
    • Nashville Life & Casualty Tower
      12
    • SunTrust Bank Main Office (Nash)
      4
    • Clark Tower (Mem)
      5
    • Nashville City Center
      1
    • Morgan Keegan Tower (Mem)
      8
    • Rennaissance Nashville Hotel
      1
    • Viridian Tower (Nash)
      3
    • Sterick Building (Mem)
      16
    • One Nashville Place
      4
    • Hilton Memphis
      0
    • Plaza Tower (Knox)
      2
    • River View Tower (Knox)
      2
    • Lincoln-Amer. Building (Mem)
      9
    • SunTrust Building (Nash)
      2
    • Palmer Plaza (Nash)
      0
    • 605 Chestnut Street (Chatt)
      1
    • Jaycee Towers (Chatt)
      0
    • Gayoso Place (Mem)
      1
    • Other
      7


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The batman is nice, and I'm certainly proud Tennessee has it, but I don't think It's worthy of the best skyscraper in Tennessee title. It looks too similar to the Melbourne Central Office Tower (check out emporis.com). I voted for the Sterick. It's a great example of skyscraper gothic, and it seems to soar (yes, the batman soars also) beyond its 29 floors. This building was built before the Empire State, and was once the tallest in the South....It's a shame it hasn't been kept up.

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Historic preservation was a buzzword in the 70's. At one time, MTSU offered a doctorate in historic preservation. Unfortunately, developers came in to downtown Nashville and destroyed a lot of historic buildings where our modern skyscrapers now sit. Hindsite is always 20/20 as they say and maybe if we had built our towers across the river, we would have the historic buildings still standing today. Then where would the Titans stadium be? Memphis has done a better job preserving old buildings, especially homes. Nashville has torn down way too many. I hope Memphis can restore the Sterick Building to its former glory before the L&C Tower became the largest skyscraper in Tennessee back in 1957.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Has everyone forgotten about the 32-story steel and glass Pyramid in Memphis? Its one of the most beautiful buildings in America. As far as distinction, it goes head up with the BellSouth building. Both contribute so much to their respective skylines.

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Has everyone forgotten about the 32-story Pyramid in Memphis?  It is one of the most recognizable buildings in the country.  With the Pyramid and the Batman building, Tennessee has two very distinctive structures!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

it has 32 floors?

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^ I think he is saying its the equivalent height of about a 32 story skyscraper, of course its an arena and thus is really not a true skyscraper, rather just a large structure/building.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

^ thanks for the clear up. i thought i had missed something. haha.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree I believe that the Clark Tower is definitely the best structure in the state. The Nashville skyline is bland and the "Batman" building is not any kind of architectural achievement at all. It looks very tacky to me, but tacky seems to be a hit in Nashville I guess!

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I'll disagree with you on that point. I have brought many people to downtown, mostly airline crews from other parts of the country. Never did one of them call the building tacky. Most all of them loved it because it is unique. Granted, Nashville is not Atlanta or Memphis and I happen to be happy about that. I do'nt want to degrade those cities but I like being unique. The people I brought in had an unbiased opinion. By the way, they love Nashville & Memphis alike for an overnight layovers.

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I would not say the Nashville skyline is bland. If you look through the database in www.emporis.com, there are lots of cities where EVERY skyscraper is like a giant box, so goes the minimalist style of the 1960's and 1970's. The most adorned skyscrapers are in Asia and parts of Europe where "art" is intregal in everyday life. Here in the USA believe it or not, we are still very conservative. It is no wonder why the Batman Building is viewed as weird or even satanic looking. I personally would love to see Signature built and very modern, but conservative looking towers are a lot less expensive. I was told by someone at Earl Swenson and Associates that the spire and the slanted blue section of the Batman Building was an extra $6,000,000.00 and the person who authorized it was FIRED for spending the money.

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To each his own I guess, but I disliked it the day it went up.  It was bland and looked cheap, even by the standards of 1972 to me.

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There's a book called Memphis: An Architectural Guide written in the '80s that basically trashes Clark Tower from an architectural point of view. I think it's a very attractive building at night, however. Situated on relatively high ground, it's certainly the most notable landmark in East Memphis and looks particularly dominating if viewed from Mullins Station Rd. or Farm Rd. in Shelby Farms. The flag and abundance of light help to abate its architectural shortcomings.

For bland and cheap, no other Memphis highrise can compete with 100 North Main. Ironically, it was designed by the same architect, Robert Lee Hall, who did Clark Tower. Perhaps with Union Planters being bought by Regions, they'll put a more attractive top on it than that boxy UP Bank sign.

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I voted for the Sterick Building simply because there's nothing else in the state that is both that big AND that old. I'm obviously ignoring the fact that it is completely vacant and has been since the '80s. I suppose I'm voting on potential.

Otherwise, I would probably vote for what was originally Third National Financial Center in Nashville (I think it's Suntrust now?). I lived there when it was built and always liked it. Batman is okay but I always thought it was a bit overhyped because of its size.

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I voted for the Sterick Building simply because there's nothing else in the state that is both that big AND that old.  I'm obviously ignoring the fact that it is completely vacant and has been since the '80s.  I suppose I'm voting on potential.

Otherwise, I would probably vote for what was originally Third National Financial Center in Nashville (I think it's Suntrust now?).  I lived there when it was built and always liked it.  Batman is okay but I always thought it was a bit overhyped because of its size.

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i would have voted for sterrick too... but its color is just... ugh. i wish they paint it back to its greyish colour whenever its renovated

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  • 6 months later...

I had a professor at Vandy, Leonard Folgarait (spelling?)... and he absolutely loved the Jas. K. Polk building. After taking his class, I had an increased respect for it.

Let's see, his point was that the building flaunted its steel skeleton by showing a little of it at the top and that the building literally hung by the girders at the top. Plus, the color was very edgy for the time it was built in 1978.

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i would have voted for sterrick too... but its color is just... ugh. i wish they paint it back to its greyish colour whenever its renovated

The Sterrick was originally white, with forest green trim, not gray.

As far as Tennessee modern architecture in general--I think it stinks. I think the Batman building looks cheap and I think the Peabody Place Tower in Memphis looks like a high school design project. Other than that, most modern TN high-rise buildings imho fall into this line of thought: Morgan-Keegan Tower doesn't look that bad from certain angles, etc.--in other words, damning with faint praise, at best.

Before we married, my wife lived in Houston from 1979 to 1989, and I would visit every weekend. I got to see Houston being built with some incredible architecture--the old Republic Bank Building, the old Transco Tower, etc. Sure, Houston had its share of duds, but overall there was a real sense of striving for some sort of excellence. I don't find that in Tennessee. Maybe some of the new stuff--Sig Tower, and so on--will mark a new beginning.

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Guess who's been invited to tour the $20 million interior renovation of the Snodgrass Tennessee Tower. There are also some nifty plans for an exterior re-hab, but I'm not at liberty to say right now what's going to happen. Drat. Stay tuned for some interesting view shots when the tour happens. Not scheduled yet.

Dave! You need to work your magic and get everyone in the forum invited. It could be a forum meet/snodgrass tour event....

....Just a suggestion :ph34r:

:thumbsup:

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The times I've been in Snodgrass from what I saw it was not in horrible shape, dated yes, but not as bad as some of the stories I had heard. I guess it might be subjective to a person's perogative though to as how bad of shape the structure is in. It definately needs a facelift inside and out though.

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