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Nashville Observation Tower|Fantasy Proposal|750-1000 Feet|Restaurant and Bar|2020|Site Unknown


Paramount747

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There has been discussion lately unofficially that Nashville needs an observation tower. Much like the Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center in NYC, or the Sears Tower and Hancock Towers in Chicago, or The Shard in London and the CN Tower in Toronto, or the St. Louis Arch all of which I have visited. I am wondering if Nashville needs such a tourist attraction?

The 28th floor (actually the 26th because there is no 13th and 27 floors of the Sheraton), is outdated on only 260 feet or so above ground. The 300 foot mark is on the top of the revolving ballroom/meeting space. (The 27th floor is actually the base of the revolving room and is about 2000 square feet. They thought about making that a two level suite going from the small 27th floor to the 28th. 26 is the now closed sundeck after a man jumped off. You cannot get to 27 from the main elevators, but you can get to 26 and 28.)

There is also an observation deck in the ATT at the 450 foot level or so.

If this were a city owned building, the city would build it but reap all rewards from visits and special events. If this were a private enterprise, it would be a moneymaker especially from tourists by overlooking Lower Broadway, The Stadium, and the river. That would be a great selling point.

As I mentioned this was proposed in 1975 at 750 feet when there was really nothing to look at!

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

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The idea has merit.  I think it should be dynamically lit like the Eiffel Tower so that it becomes an icon at night as much as it's stature stands out during the day. Since we are one of the entertainment capitals of the world, it should showcase some amazing visual abilities that will draw people to see it in person, and mesmerized while they are here. A destination landmark piece.  

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1 hour ago, markhollin said:

The idea has merit.  I think it should be dynamically lit like the Eiffel Tower so that it becomes an icon at night as much as it's stature stands out during the day. Since we are one of the entertainment capitals of the world, it should showcase some amazing visual abilities that will draw people to see it in person, and mesmerized while they are here. A destination landmark piece.  

The million dollar question is, "What would it look like ?" The worry is that it would resemble a giant guitar (like that tacky skyscraper proposal) or some other musical instrument in a ghastly modernist style. Conversely, we don't want to copy the Eiffel Tower, either (or the Gateway Arch). I'm a bit at a loss at present as to what such a structure should look like that makes it stand out, but doesn't look tacky or derivative.

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There really is a dichotomy, some of these structures, like the St. Louis Arch or La Tour Eiffel are really gorgeous, the Space Needle is really cool in a retro-future way, and then there's the ball on a stick in Toronto, the ball on a stick in Berlin, many other uninspired designs all over... We need something with style. I'd like to see a design competition.

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Ghost Ballet has grown on me.  Every major city apparently has to have at least one big red-painted steel sculpture, and ours is better than most.

Is there any word on if and when the proposed giant river fountain may begin slouching toward reality?  That's something I'm really looking forward to.

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12 hours ago, Neigeville2 said:

Ghost Ballet has grown on me.  Every major city apparently has to have at least one big red-painted steel sculpture, and ours is better than most.

Is there any word on if and when the proposed giant river fountain may begin slouching toward reality?  That's something I'm really looking forward to.

..Never gave it a though about urban red-steel sculptures, until you mentioned it.  Boston interestingly took two chunks from one of three parallel century-old RR bridges just south of South Station (Old Colony RR) at the Fort Point Channel (outright nasty).  An engineering feat for any period, the city determined them too costly to repair due to corrosion and wear (from a century of pounding of the bridge abutments), so it commissioned converting a couple of pieces most representative of the bridges, into a giant trinket.

Some of the space remaining from the dismantling of these bridges was converted into Rolling Bridge Park, part of the present day Boston Harborwalk, that city's version of beautifying waterside industrial blight and decay, just as Nashville has begun to address on the East Bank.  Specifically, the sculpture is a piece of rivet-fabricated giant gear quadrant affixed to a piece of horizontal girder. In former operation, the quadrant (one on both sides of a movable bridge span) would slowly roll along the top of the stationary girder, as the bridge would open or close.

The Alice Aycock "Ghost Ballet" represents an abstraction of industrial-to-recreation transformation, instead of being direct tribute as a monument to a specific landmark, as does Boston's Rolling Bridge sculpture, but Ghost Ballet does incorporate part of an original barge-launching gantry (shown illustrated with rectangles) from the former American Bridge Co. Both sculptures pay tribute to the past and set the curious mind wandering (if not "rolling").

Rolling Bridge Park Sculpture, Boston
Rolling_Bridge_Park_(med).jpg.d75b37784d

Old Colony RR bridge downtown Boston (Fort Point Channel - partially filled)
564f2647bbc26_FortPointChannelbridge-Bos

Ghost Ballet (on gantry extentions)
Ghost_Ballet.JPG.03d50c18bad95f6732767d1

-==-

 

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On Thu Nov 19 2015 10:28:47 GMT-0600, Paramount747 said:

Unfortunately we never appropriately light up the tower in front of the arena. That could be really cool if they actually used it. Its rarely lit, and the hideous Aycock piece has never been fixed to light up all it was supposed to.

I agree 100%

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