Project Thread/New Construction/Photo du jour/Const. CAMs

[markhollin]

1 minute ago, timmay143 said:

But how many of those lots did have something significant before they were surface parking?

I would contend not many. If anything, they mostly had low-level, 1 story manufacturing/warehousing structures with no historic relevance.   

[timmay143]

4 minutes ago, markhollin said:

I would contend not many. If anything, they mostly had low-level, 1 story manufacturing/warehousing structures with no historic relevance.   

LOL.  That is good to hear.  Sorry to be a Debbie Downer!

[MLBrumby]

I once saw a book at a friend's house. It contained photos by a Banner photographer (Grannis?!?) from the 1930 through 1960s. There were lots of shots of downtown from Rolling Mill Hill and south looking north. The whole area south of Church street contained low, flat roofed industrial buildings. It was quite junky looking. 

[PillowTalk4]

16 hours ago, Pdt2f said:

It’s turning for the better, one step at a time. Those empty lots are opportunity. If they had been filled 30 years ago we would have had a city full of Tennessee Towers, with massive concrete walls and no activation. Not that I don’t like the Tennessee Tower, it’s just good that there’s only 1 of them. 

Nashville is turning for the better.  I see it every single time I return to visit family.  But keep in mind street activation can be added.  Cities like DC, Philly, NYC and Boston have buildings that have gone through changes at the street level to add retail, doughnut shops, coffee shops, pizza joints, full service restaurants, hair and nail salons, barber shops, delis, and all kind of specialty stores.   Buildings can evolve to meet the neighborhood demands.    Aren't they already modifying the MCC and Bridgestone to have street level activity?  Neither were designed to be that way.

[SoundScan]

^^ Exactly, and many of the newer apartment buildings in the city have built high-ceiling, concrete ground floors anticipating converting what are now residential apartments into commercial/retail space when the market is ready.

[e-dub]

Nashville, 19 and 25. Stolen from the Facebook.

 

[FrankNash]

^^^WOW!

[e-dub]

Density looking THICC.

[Pdt2f]

Man, if only we hadn’t fallen in love with the car. A couple of pocket parks here or there, a few big ones like the bicentennial mall or centennial park, and some streetcar lines and we’d be golden. 

[CenterHill]

Not a single parking lot in that frame.    Just wow. 

[Tennessine]

When did we begin to clear out those residential blocks for lots? The 50s?

[markhollin]

Looking NW from Trolley Barns:
 

[nashvylle]

7 hours ago, nativetenn said:

When did we begin to clear out those residential blocks for lots? The 50s?

Whenever the car plus interstates came into play 

[MLBrumby]

10 hours ago, nativetenn said:

When did we begin to clear out those residential blocks for lots? The 50s?

The whole bottom portion of that photo was cleared out in "urban renewal" starting in the late 1940s. JRP was completed a few years after that culminating in the construction of the Victory Memorial Bridge in the late 1950s. That opened the door for the rest of the "Public Square" to be demolished and redevelopment of Deaderick over the next 15 years. 

https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/article/13006140/a-city-swept-clean

[markhollin]

^ ^ ^ Welllll....that whole bottom portion of the photo was "Hell's Half Acre" (actually more like at least 70 acres), had no sewer system, most homes still utilized outhouses and wood burning stoves, was full of condemned buildings, numerous whorehouses, etc.  and had been a complete disgrace since the Civil War.  It was disgusting that people were living like that well into the 1950s.  It needed to go.  

[MLBrumby]

Yep... not arguing it wasn't justified, but it was density! A hella lot of it. Folks here need to keep that in mind when they lament the loss of density. There really was a lot of it that was unfit for human habitation.  I do think JRP was done so poorly (aka suburban), but apparently the needs at that time were for a fast way to get in/out of downtown. 

Another thing to consider with so much vertical development over the past 60 years, many of those blocks are actually more dense, at least when you consider people working (and living in some cases) there. The article I attached stated that about 300 people (100+ families) were displaced for JRP. That's as many as just one of the larger apartment blocks built in recent years can house.

I'm with the poster above who says s/he sees opportunity in the open lots visible in the aerial shots of downtown. 

Edited August 22, 2018 by MLBrumby

[PillowTalk4]

I just wonder what were the buildings I circled?  Seeing this  picture helps me to see how my grandfather used to describe Nashville.  I also never realized how off centered the Capitol is on the overall property.  I'm sure that has everything to do with the peak, and maybe they considered the east side more prominent back then.

[MLBrumby]

I actually know some of those.

Andrew Jackson Hotel (demolished for Andrew Jackson Office Bldg.)

YMCA demolished for the building now Sheraton 

Original National Life Insurance HQ Bldg. - where the first Grand Ole Opry broadcast originated on WSM

Carnegie Library, demolished to make way for the "new" 1963 Ben West Library

Have no clue about the bldg at Charlotte to right of Capitol

Up Church Street...

Watkins College?

Third National Bank HQ at 4th Avenue 

No clue what's between 3rd Natl & Watkins

Also on Church are Tulane Hotel and Doctors Building w/o Bennie Dillon bldg 

In the back along Broadway is Hume Fogg HS

[PillowTalk4]

Hmmm... the original Nat'l Life Bldg... was it torn down an replaced with another building in that same location.  Seems like I remember something a bit taller that was still in place when what is now called Tennessee Tower was built.  The tower I'm thinking of was eventually torn down to make way for a twin to the TN Tower that never materialized.  Instead it became a plaza area and entry to the underground parking.

If you're saying that the building on Church Street that kinda resembles Union Station  is Watkins college, what a shame that got torn down.  I remember Watkins being in another building on Church Street closer to 8th if I recall.  Of course that would have been in the 70's and 80's for me.

[MLBrumby]

The building in the photo was the original HQ building which was demolished (I think) in the 1970s. It was a beautiful classical style building similar to the Frost Building but bigger. You remember the strikingly beautiful art deco tower built around 1940. It stood between the original and the new tower built in 1969. The second tower was demolished sometime in the early 1980s. 

 

First building... 

 

Second "tower" visible behind War Memorial Auditorium.

All three (circa 1969)...

[MidTenn1]

5 hours ago, MLBrumby said:

I actually know some of those.

Andrew Jackson Hotel (demolished for Andrew Jackson Office Bldg.)

YMCA demolished for the building now Sheraton 

Original National Life Insurance HQ Bldg. - where the first Grand Ole Opry broadcast originated on WSM

Carnegie Library, demolished to make way for the "new" 1963 Ben West Library

Have no clue about the bldg at Charlotte to right of Capitol

Up Church Street...

Watkins College?

Third National Bank HQ at 4th Avenue 

No clue what's between 3rd Natl & Watkins

Also on Church are Tulane Hotel and Doctors Building w/o Bennie Dillon bldg 

In the back along Broadway is Hume Fogg HS

I was thinking the Andrew Jackson Hotel was demolished for a 40 story hotel which obviously was never built. A large hole was excavated (sound familiar?) for the hotel and finally filled by the Polk Tower/TPAC Building.

[MLBrumby]

I stand corrected. It is The Polk Tower. I was thinking the Polk Tower/TPAC building was named Andrew Jackson (guess I was associating the old name with the new building). The Jackson Office building is the bland white building that fronts Charlotte at 6th (under construction in the 1969 photo). Thanks!

[Tennessine]

7 hours ago, markhollin said:

^ ^ ^ Welllll....that whole bottom portion of the photo was "Hell's Half Acre" (actually more like at least 70 acres), had no sewer system, most homes still utilized outhouses and wood burning stoves, was full of condemned buildings, numerous whorehouses, etc.  and had been a complete disgrace since the Civil War.  It was disgusting that people were living like that well into the 1950s.  It needed to go.  

Did a little research on Hell's Half Acre. Not sure of the year this picture was taken. 

These are slums. I don't care what euphemism people want to use for this type of housing.

[Pdt2f]

[markhollin]

TBT: L&C Tower and the Riverfront, 1959.