28 Story Bldg for Bass, Berry?

[vinemp]

I am not under the impression there are many skyscrapers in all the United States that would be worthy of ecstatic praise when looked at outside the context of their skylines. Likewise, none of the buildings in Nashville

[jdavidf]

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I dunno how I could've let it slip my mind. Of course, the Batman building is synonymous with Nashville! I remember how impressive it seemed when I moved to Nashville a decade ago.

Funny...seeing the building on the horizon when I'm driving in makes me feel I have arrived at home.

[NewTowner]

I agree the CMHofF is pretty silly, but at least it's sort of playfully, welcoming silly, like come in and have a good time in our wierd piano/radio tower thing. The CMH was already there, though, and the Schermerhorn's arrival dramatically raised the bar for all future architecture in the area, so it's disapointing that the two subsequent projects refuse to ante up.

[titanhog]

Smart words! I agree. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum may be a dorky building, but as it was built before the Schermerhorn, it can only be criticized for a lack of vision--rather than for failing to respond appropriately to an already present vision (such as the one the Schermerhorn now presents). The Country Music building was suicide, not murder. Also, the Hall of Fame isn't thirty stories tall, which makes comparing it to the proposed "Crown" a little odd. Sure, ugly is ugly--but big ugly is real big ugly. The "Crown" will be a real big ugly murder-suicide, and those are the worst.

Nobody wants the Schermerhorn to be removed from our polis and placed in a field like Salisbury Cathedral, my chaps 'n' dames, and it is utterly silly of some to suggest it. The decorous crafting of urban fabric requires all kinds of buildings--and not all of them deserve to have colonnades and sculpted pediments--but these many and sundry structures should be designed so that they work harmoniously together. Symphonies and great works of theater have lead roles and melodies, but they also have oodles of supporting bits and background framing elements. Common buildings made for everyday use in average routines are like the multitudes of supporting actors or the wash of rhythmic bass-lines, and they should show deference to the more important lead actors and soloists among them. For example, Nashville would be in better shape if the city's hilltop State Capitol building was more visible--it is truly a gem of American architecture, placed on the highest hill for a good reason, and now it is nearly encased by nondescript glass blocks. The Schermerhorn is also such a lead player. Let it sing!

Our Symphony Center will almost certainly make the history books, for reasons I won't go into here, but the Crown--if it is built as schemed--will diminish and embarass the Schermerhorn...and it will do the same to Nashville and its people in the process. The tower should either, as Nashvillain suggests, be pushed back away from the Schermerhorn, or it should never be built. Once the massing and site plan is made more humane, the Crown's ground floors need to be human-scaled and lovingly detailed, activated by human uses (not parking), and made of decent materials. Summarized, the Crown needs to be beautiful, useful, and strong...just like the Schermerhorn. The new building doesn't have to be fashioned from marble, and it doesn't have to have fountains all over it. It just needs to add its voice to our civic song on a note cued by the Symphony...a respectful and lovely harmony, not a dissonant brash clatter. Embrace, don't dominate...a stage with a hundred leads is hosting a beauty pageant, not a play--and we are, after all, better off as actors than we are as mere competitors.

[NewTowner]

I agree with much of what you said, but the only problem is that the SSC wasn't placed atop a hill like the State Capital. It sits in a non-descript portion of DT that lacks the "awe" factor of a strategically located hilltop. Too bad, cause it would look grand placed upon a pedastal like that.

[Kheldane]

Our Symphony Center will almost certainly make the history books

[doormanpoet]

New Towner my friend, architecture IS about art and sculpture, not just context. I would rather an architect be an artist, rather than an engineer. I would rather have an architect be an artist rather than a bean counter that builds towers out of budget and financial context.

When I look at a building, I want to see sculpture soaring to the sky, I don't want to read a novel with a formula beginning, middle and end. Maybe if the skyscraper were literary fiction encompasing William Faulkner and Charles Bukowski, or William Gay and Ann Patchett I could see it, but I don't want Stephen King meets Dean Koontz just for implied theatrical and literary context. I want more than that.

Architecture should be art and sculpture. I have had enough of context. I have had enough of the rules and worn out nostalgic formula. Forget convention and context.

I want art! Art is where Heaven and God are, Context is where the out of work writer is who sits in an empty bar wondering where his life went because he tried for context rather than art.

[NewTowner]

Doorman: of course architecture is art. But it isn't sculpture--for the same reason that literature isn't music, and theater isn't painting. It is different. What makes architecture different from sculpture? Why does architecture have obligations and opportunities unique to its own sphere, separate from the spheres of other art forms?

Sculpture and architecture have a lot in common, for sure, and they share certain territory. They both exist in a three-dimensional realm, and they both interact with light and shadow, and they are both more enduring (normally) than the blissfully ephemeral passing note or a momentarily moving performance.

But architecture is not sculpture, because--to break it down completely--people go inside of it and do stuff in it. Unlike sculpture, painting, and music, architecture is the stage of human events. This is the only thing that truly separates it from its close cousin and oft-ally Sculpture. Your desire to see these two art forms as identical is strange to me--shouldn't the emotionally charged lover of beauty and grandeur be thrilled to find that life's palette has more tools rather then fewer? Architecture is art, but it is its own.

As for your accusations about classicism or traditional design (and common-sense design, it would seem) being nothing more than formulaic imitation (I think this is what you are saying...?...), I would simply reply that you are over-simplifying. Your blanket contempt for "rules" is, for lack of a better word, na

[doormanpoet]

I don't have contempt for the rules, and I don't want architectural masturbation for that matter either, but I think the city deserves art and sculpture rather than trying to fit everything into context and some controlled urban design cliche' that is so Nashville and thus non progressive and stale.

[franktown]

What is the official status of this building? I know that they were going to revisit the height limit in SoBro, but I didn't remember the final outcome. When will we see some more discussion/movement on this project?

[Hankster]

What is the official status of this building? I know that they were going to revisit the height limit in SoBro, but I didn't remember the final outcome. When will we see some more discussion/movement on this project?