Federal Courthouse, 6 & 8 stories, 276,000 sq. ft.,

[markhollin]

Stone cladding about 95% complete, most windows installed.

Looking west from 7th Ave. North, 1/4 block south of Church St:

Looking NW from 7th Ave. North, 1/4 block north of Commerce St:

Looking west from 7th Ave. North, 1/2 block north of Commerce St:

Looking north from Commerce St., 1/2 block east of Rosa L. Parks Blvd:

Looking east from Rosa L. Parks Blvd., 1/2 block north of Commerce St:

Looking NE from intersection of Rosa L. Parks Blvd. and Commerce St:

[rolly]

I'd like to have seen a nice 10 or 12 story building to get a bump on the skyline, but this one sure perked up the ground level experience in that area.  

[Native]

Working on the roof today with a lime green crane.

 

[dmillsphoto]

I sure did have trouble discerning the Grand Hyatt from Rhythm looking at this image. And that's obviously not a compliment.

[nashvylle]

Very pleased with how this govt building is turning out 

[rolly]

It's a great addition for the city.

I wonder why they didn't go for more levels, like at least 10.
Some of the newer ones in comparable cities are around 15 to 20 stories, like in Jacksonville, Cleveland, Oakland, Sacramento, and Tampa.

US Federal Courthouse List

[JoeyX]

2 minutes ago, rolly said:

It's a great addition for the city.

I wonder why they didn't go for more levels, like at least 10.
Some of the newer ones in comparable cities are around 15 to 20 stories, like in Jacksonville, Cleveland, Oakland, Sacramento, and Tampa.

US Federal Courthouse List

And they're all ugly.

[MLBrumby]

1 hour ago, rolly said:

It's a great addition for the city.

I wonder why they didn't go for more levels, like at least 10.
Some of the newer ones in comparable cities are around 15 to 20 stories, like in Jacksonville, Cleveland, Oakland, Sacramento, and Tampa.

US Federal Courthouse List

All of those cities have more effective Congressional representatives. Jim Cooper is known by his colleagues in both parties as a do-nothing back-bencher. I've worked with several lawyers who've worked for him and others in DC. But he has job security. 

[Auntie Yock]

22 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

All of those cities have more effective Congressional representatives. Jim Cooper is known by his colleagues in both parties as a do-nothing back-bencher. I've worked with several lawyers who've worked for him and others in DC. But he has job security. 

If the Council passes that tax increase, the voters may take it out on both him and his brother.

[Auntie Yock]

On ‎4‎/‎30‎/‎2020 at 11:20 AM, JoeyX said:

And they're all ugly.

The Jacksonville one is decent enough.

The Cleveland one is beautiful:

Tampa's is ugly:

Oakland is subpar:

 

Sacramento appears derivative of Jacksonville's:

[henburg]

How are all of these Federal Courthouses in our peer cities so much larger? What are they actually putting in there that we aren't?

[Bos2Nash]

Really depends on the city. Boston's really isn't that large, but the parcel is mightily impressive

[Native]

On 5/2/2020 at 10:01 AM, henburg said:

How are all of these Federal Courthouses in our peer cities so much larger? What are they actually putting in there that we aren't?

We have always been minimalists when it comes to federal construction for some reason.  May go back to McKellar and other senators who favored other parts of the state.  This new building will house only courts and the offices necessary to support them (clerk, probation, U.S. Marshal, US Attorney, etc.).  The design was supposed to embrace downtown but no one realized Nashville Yards would completely revolutionize the area west of Eighth Avenue.

The view from the old courthouse at 8th and Broad.

The Berger Building, saved by Historical designation.

From Eighth and Church.

From the front, on Church Street.

[MLBrumby]

Personally, I think this building, while attractive but not beautiful, has represented government waste from its very inception. The incredibly lengthy process of planning... funding... defunding... purchasing... designing... the lack of a federal budget for nearly a decade... and then its smallish size with no plan to consolidate the offices contained in the Kefauver building.  This thing should have been built 20 years ago at the NW corner of Demonbreun and incorporated into a federal complex with existing offices. But that would have made too much sense. 

[ruraljuror]

51 minutes ago, MLBrumby said:

Personally, I think this building, while attractive but not beautiful, has represented government waste from its very inception. The incredibly lengthy process of planning... funding... defunding... purchasing... designing... the lack of a federal budget for nearly a decade... and then its smallish size with no plan to consolidate the offices contained in the Kefauver building.  This thing should have been built 20 years ago at the NW corner of Demonbreun and incorporated into a federal complex with existing offices. But that would have made too much sense. 

I agree that it's been a slow and sometimes frustrating process getting to this point for just a 'smallish' non-consolidating building, but planning/constructing it too quickly and/or too large with excess capacity (based on expected-but-not-guaranteed growth models) can be just as problematic.  Currently (pre-pandemic), the federal government spends almost 2 billion dollars a year maintaining empty buildings and unused office space that may...or may not...be useful at some point in the future. That's pretty frustrating too I think.

As I see it, this is just the nature of real estate speculation for the most part - sometimes developers flip a property at a 5x return after just a few years, and sometimes they overestimate the market's appetite and we end up with a West End Summit sized hole in the ground for 2 decades.

Having a range of outcomes that runs  all the way from wild success to bankruptcy works great for private developers who can either make a lot of money or potentially lose their shirts. For the federal government, however, bankruptcy is an option we don't anywhere near the range of potential outcomes, so actions that may seem like waste when viewed through the lens of the private market can actually be a good way of conducting 'business' for the federal government.  Slow and steady wins the race when the goal is long-term infrastructure planning instead of short-term maximized profit. 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by ruraljuror

[markhollin]

Looking NE from intersection of Commerce St. and Rosa L. Parks Blvd:

[Auntie Yock]

2 hours ago, markhollin said:

Looking NE from intersection of Commerce St. and Rosa L. Parks Blvd:

Our World of Minecraft courthouse.

[markhollin]

Prep work for the domed rotunda underway.

Looking SW from intersection of 7th Ave. North and Church St:

[21jump]

This already looks better than the renderings. I was not a fan initially but it's turning out to be quite nice.

[markhollin]

Looking east from Rosa L. Parks Blvd, 1/2 block north of Commerce St:

Looking NE from intersection of Rosa L. Parks Blvd. and Commerce St:

Looking north from Commerce St., 1/2 block east of Rosa L. Parks Blvd:

Looking NW from intersection of Commerce St. and 7th Ave. North:

Looking west from 7th Ave. North, 1/4 block south of Church St:

[markhollin]

Prep work for the domed rotunda continues.

Looking SW from intersection of 7th Ave. North and Church St:

Looking NW from intersection of Commerce St. and 7th Ave. North:

[titanhog]

^^Seeing how lovely that blue glass fits with that almost alabaster color stonework...it makes me think the Grand Hyatt would have looked nice with this color stonework instead of the beige.

[Sean blackdog]

Yesterday afternoon.
All RAISE!! 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Sean blackdog

[Native]

I hope the red roof is a permanent part of this project.  Nice accent to a government building.

 

 

 

[titanhog]

^^That looks bad.  Surely it won't be red.