Rebuilding Second Avenue

[FrankNash]

The Tennessean has a piece out today about the redevelopment of 2nd ave.  One sentence jumped out at me.  Quote.  "Private developers are also working on residential high-rises with ground-floor shops and restaurants in place of adjacent parking lots and on top of existing buildings".

[MLBrumby]

I might believe it if it wasn't in the Tennessean... lol    Really though, I hope that stretch between Church and Broadway never sees any more high rises.  If anything, I'd love to see the ATT 'switching tower' relocated somewhere else.  The corner of Church and 2nd (currently a parking lot), I wish would see a 7-8 story modernized Italianate (IDK even if there's anything like that) rendition of the antebellum Maxwell House hotel with verandas overlooking the Cumberland. Of course, I'd also like to see an arched pedestrian bridge from the foot of Church St. at First... across to the new central green of the Titans' future dome.  I'd also like to see the stretch of First between Church and Broadway to be cobblestoned completely and closed to motorized traffic (maybe with bollards at Church/Broadway to allow for truck deliveries during early hours of a day and food trucks at certain times/days.  Make that whole block overlooking the river for al fresco dining/drinking.  I remember visiting Koln, Germany twenty years ago, and the riverfront was filled with patio dining areas... really cool. There's so much that could be done.  When I look at the tax zone set up for the Titans' new dome, I wonder why that couldn't be done along 2nd Avenue and in other areas that could really benefit from such investment.

Edited January 31, 2023 by MLBrumby
added word "switching"

[MorganRehnberg]

  I'd also like to see the stretch of First between Church and Broadway to be cobblestoned completely and closed to motorized traffic (maybe with bollards at Church/Broadway to allow for truck deliveries during early hours of a day and food trucks at certain times/days.  Make that whole block overlooking the river for al fresco dining/drinking.  I remember visiting Koln, Germany twenty years ago, and the riverfront was filled with patio dining areas... really cool. There's so much that could be done.  When I look at the tax zone set up for the Titans' new dome, I wonder why that couldn't be done along 2nd Avenue and in other areas that could really benefit from such investment.

This seems like such a great way to improve river activation without spending almost any money

[BnaBreaker]

5 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

I might believe it if it wasn't in the Tennessean... lol    Really though, I hope that stretch between Church and Broadway never sees any more high rises.  If anything, I'd love to see the ATT 'switching tower' relocated somewhere else.  The corner of Church and 2nd (currently a parking lot), I wish would see a 7-8 story modernized Italianate (IDK even if there's anything like that) rendition of the antebellum Maxwell House hotel with verandas overlooking the Cumberland. Of course, I'd also like to see an arched pedestrian bridge from the foot of Church St. at First... across to the new central green of the Titans' future dome.  I'd also like to see the stretch of First between Church and Broadway to be cobblestoned completely and closed to motorized traffic (maybe with bollards at Church/Broadway to allow for truck deliveries during early hours of a day and food trucks at certain times/days.  Make that whole block overlooking the river for al fresco dining/drinking.  I remember visiting Koln, Germany twenty years ago, and the riverfront was filled with patio dining areas... really cool. There's so much that could be done.  When I look at the tax zone set up for the Titans' new dome, I wonder why that couldn't be done along 2nd Avenue and in other areas that could really benefit from such investment.

I agree that would be an amazing look for First Avenue to be lined with sidewalk cafes and the like, but I wonder if it would ever actually be a possibility without completely gutting and overhauling that historic row of buildings, because as far as I can tell, it is the backs of all of those buildings that face First Avenue, while the  retail fronts face 2nd.

[Luvemtall]

Let us not forget, that this idea of a cobblestone lined , Al fresco 1st ave design . Was a idea and vision first mentioned, by our friend Titanhog, right after the unfortunate event that took place over two years ago. I personally agree, that’s a awesome and respectable option for that stretch of 1st avenue . Makes perfect sense to include a design of this type into anything done in that area.  
MLB , totally with you on the Maxwell House Hotel idea for that parking lot! I just recently seen  the Manning project out on the West End, and my first thought was how cool a building of that design would make a cool Hotel on that parking lot you mentioned. And of course, totally with you on moving that AT&T eyesore out of downtown.

[titanhog]

3 hours ago, Luvemtall said:

Let us not forget, that this idea of a cobblestone lined , Al fresco 1st ave design . Was a idea and vision first mentioned, by our friend Titanhog, right after the unfortunate event that took place over two years ago. I personally agree, that’s a awesome and respectable option for that stretch of 1st avenue . Makes perfect sense to include a design of this type into anything done in that area.  
MLB , totally with you on the Maxwell House Hotel idea for that parking lot! I just recently seen  the Manning project out on the West End, and my first thought was how cool a building of that design would make a cool Hotel on that parking lot you mentioned. And of course, totally with you on moving that AT&T eyesore out of downtown.

[markhollin]

^ ^ ^ Nice to hear from you again, Titanhog.   Hope you're well.  : )

[smeagolsfree]

Welcome back beautiful  lady!!!!

[Luvemtall]

Yes, good to hear from you Titanhog!

[markhollin]

Cladding work on east side of AT&T building underway.

Looking NW from 2nd Ave. North, 1/4 block north of Commerce St:

[lmc123]

I know this is the 2nd Avenue forum, but what is the status of activating the 1st Avenue facing the riverfront? I vaguely remember that being a priority mentioned after the bombing as well.

[markhollin]

Artwork of old structures starting to appear on cladding of AT&T Switching Building.

Looking NW from 2nd Ave. North, 1/3 block north of Commerce St:

 

Looking SW from 2nd Ave. North, 1/3 block south of Church St:

[VSRJ]

Please don't tell me that's the finished product. This whole recladding is a mess. I would have rather them just reinstall brick.

[Baronakim]

4 hours ago, markhollin said:

Artwork of old structures starting to appear on cladding of AT&T Switching Building.

Looking NW from 2nd Ave. North, 1/3 block north of Commerce St:

 

Looking SW from 2nd Ave. North, 1/3 block south of Church St:

Pathetic.

[chris holman]

I'm sure that it can't be the finished design.

[smeagolsfree]

As always AT & T does crap on the cheap just like their customer service. I was not a fan of the design to start with, and Metro bought in to the crap they wanted to do! This was a failure on the part of Metro and those running the rebuild effort on the part of Metro. The plan was weak to start with. 

This is probably not the finished product but as I said I didn't like the project to start with. It was cheese to replace more cheese.

[Rick Dalton]

AT&T will never spend a dollar more than they are required to

[drewbert]

I hope this isn't too far off-topic, but a few weeks ago in the lead up to some stormy weather, I had the WSMV live feed on for updates - and between weather broadcasts they just show a live shot of downtown from across the river, with the AT&T building in plain sight. Glanced up at the screen to see that somebody had a laser beam projector pointed at the building, displaying various bits of hate speech.  All I saw was for a minute or two before it stopped. The building sure provided a wide, flat, prominent canvas.

[East Side Urbanite]

The previous skin was red/maroon metal (and not brick, other than at the base). The building has no windows and, as such, it had to be skinned in metal. So what color if not silver? Silver is at least elegant (and could look cool at night when lit). Maroon (the previous color) was "in style" for about one year in the 1980s.

 

I don't know what more AT&T could have done — other than having a full-building mural (and the risk of that would have been substantial). True, adding some "fins" some "neo-art-deco-esque" elements, etc., would have been cool. But that simply isn't practical.

 

Seriously, what is there to complain about folks? You were actually expecting something of quality? There were no great options.

 

What would have been your suggestions (other than flattening the structure and seeing it replaced with a real building — which would have been great)?

Edited April 11, 2023 by East Side Urbanite

[Luvemtall]

They could have skinned it with one way blue glass panels, make it look like a “ real” building. Maybe even backlit the glass to appear as windows, something other then the cheap faux look it’s turning out to be. 

[East Side Urbanite]

38 minutes ago, Luvemtall said:

They could have skinned it with one way blue glass panels, make it look like a “ real” building. Maybe even backlit the glass to appear as windows, something other then the cheap faux look it’s turning out to be. 

That sounds good. Maybe they considered it.

From AT&T:

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/development/when-i-first-saw-a-rendering-of-the-design-i-was-intrigued/article_2dc6c6a4-4978-11ec-adb0-87acdd7ec8c5.html

[Baronakim]

6 hours ago, chris holman said:

I'm sure that it can't be the finished design.

I fear that it is.  The description of the project was a skin ao reflective silver metal panels  ETCHED with the old street buildings.  Etching is what I see and that is the finished product.  There can be no further embellishment of ietched metal panels.    Looks like crap.  The silver reflective is just awful compared to what was replaced.  The etching looks to be a joke.  We will need some big magnolia street trees to cover it up.  It is a scar on the face of Nashville IMO.  Decidious trees will only cover it up  in leaf.  Maybe we will be blessed with some good graffiti.  Anything will be an improvement.

 

2 hours ago, East Side Urbanite said:

 

 

What would have been your suggestions (other than flattening the structure and seeing it replaced with a real building — which would have been great)?

Building a brick fascade of the original buildings! A stage saloon front set yes, but vastly better.

 

[bnacincy]

With all the tech innovations of the past 30 years or so, does AT&T even need a building that size? If not, they could have built a smaller facility right behind this one on 3rd Ave. and  if the city could have paid for demolishing the current building an enterprising developer could have come in and recreated that part of 2nd Ave pre AT&T.

Several places in Europe did this post World War 2...anything would have been an improvement to this.

Edited April 12, 2023 by bnacincy
Content

[bigeasy]

Someone really needs to recalibrate their printer. That looks awful

[Bos2Nash]

I believe this is actually perforated metal. I will try to go over at lunch and get a closer picture. Some colleagues showed me an image a couple weeks ago and mentioned they saw it as perforations instead of etching. Perforating the metal with the image probably provided a more maintenance free approach to the mural rather than having to worry about the quality of the etching.