Nashville Bits and Pieces

[barakat]

According to the metro development tracker, it seems there's movement on the KVB roundabout art installation.  It's case number 2014M-003OT-001.

[bhibbs]

According to the metro development tracker, it seems there's movement on the KVB roundabout art installation.  It's case number 2014M-003OT-001.

I thought I saw some lighting being installed that would be pointed in the direction of the middle of the roundabout...making me think this was coming.

People already can't drive around that thing, now they would be looking at Sticks and running into each other!

[bwithers1]

According to the metro development tracker, it seems there's movement on the KVB roundabout art installation.  It's case number 2014M-003OT-001.

There is also a budgetary resolution from the Council's Budget & Finance Committee on the10/21 agenda pertaining to TDOT approval for the KVB Roundabout public art installation  http://www.nashville.gov/mc/resolutions/term_2011_2015/rs2014_1265.htm. 

[Nathan_in_DC]

There is also a budgetary resolution from the Council's Budget & Finance Committee on the10/21 agenda pertaining to TDOT approval for the KVB Roundabout public art installation  http://www.nashville.gov/mc/resolutions/term_2011_2015/rs2014_1265.htm. 

 

The more I think about it, and the more I see the roundabout, the more I think it's a massive waste to put something like Sticks in there.  Nashville needs some sort of grand fountain or sculpture or something.  Something along the lines of Philadelphia's Logan Circle fountain would be a PERFECT center piece to the roundabout. It takes an extremely busy intersection and makes it a park that actually gets use.  It's a focal point of the rather beautiful Ben Franklin Boulevard, and something like that is needed on KVB. Not some strange, modernist construction that looks like someone just shoved some painted telephone poles into the ground at odd angles.

 

Could have had this:

 

 

 

But, instead, we get this:

 

[BnaBreaker]

I agree completely Nathan.  I do differ with some in that I actually like Stix as a piece of urban art.  However, like you said, it really does nothing to make that space into something that is actually functional.  That being said though, I'm not sure the KVB roundabout is really big enough to be used as a public space. 

[ariesjow]

After witnessing how dangerously many Nashvillians and tourists drive around that roundabout, I am not sure I'd be willing to traverse it often for any sort of public space.

[Nathan_in_DC]

I agree completely Nathan.  I do differ with some in that I actually like Stix as a piece of urban art.  However, like you said, it really does nothing to make that space into something that is actually functional.  That being said though, I'm not sure the KVB roundabout is really big enough to be used as a public space. 

 

Not on the scale mentioned above, however, something of interest could be put there.  The KVB roundabout is 170' curb-to-curb, whereas the area around the Logan Circle Swann Fountain, only including the fountain itself and the 30' promenade around it, is about 180'. This doesn't include a large inaccessible green area that buffers traffic and the fountain, which in total is around 365'.  Shrink the fountain, give it a 20ft promeade, and you have room for a greenspace buffer.  Of course, it's a completely different roundabout in that it has traffic signals to slow traffic, where KVB doesn't.  That doesn't mean it *couldn't* have traffic signals, though, which will be absolutely necessary if any density ever develops around it and pedestrians want to be able to cross the street safely.

[donNdonelson2]

Any fountain component in that roundabout would function solely as a photo op--as will this contemporary sculpture installation. God forbid anyone hazard the walk through the distracted drivers to reach the center!

I wish budgets and other constraints would have permitted the fountain element that was planned for Musica on Music Row.

[rookzie]

After witnessing how dangerously many Nashvillians and tourists drive around that roundabout, I am not sure I'd be willing to traverse it often for any sort of public space.

...particularly given the high motorist aggressiveness per capita in Nashv'l, compounded by the practice of yield-only movements for traffic circles in general.  Some of the larger circles employ a synchronized series of traffic management signals (replete with red and green left- and right-turn arrows), an example being DuPont Circle and Tenley Circle in NW DC, which in fact has many circles typically well adapted to that city's grid and its diagonal array of state-named avenues.

 

DuPont is a rather large confluence of streets, one of which ─ Connecticut Ave ─ has center through lanes which pass beneath the circle and flank lanes which join the circle at grade along with 19th St., P St., Mass. Ave., and New Hampshire Ave.  Along with the traffic tunnel, from the late '40s until 1962, DC's defunct streetcar system (Capital Traction, turned "DC Transit") maintained an underground turnaround beneath that circle, as the city's only subway-like station at that time.  The trolley would descend a ramp along Connecticut Ave, serve the underground station beneath the circle, and then return from the sub-grade loop and emerge along a parallel track.  This thing now is partially filled in and otherwise is a closed up "rathole". (I actually got to ride down that thing in mid-1961)   Today, DC's Metro Rail (WMATA) operates one of the system's busiest stations at DuPont (and as one can imagine, one of the deepest stations and escalator caverns of any system).

 

Of course neither KVB nor Music Row circles (roundabouts) compare anyway close to the scale of DuPont, although they could compare to the much smaller Tenley Circle (in a neighborhood referred to as TenleyTown) in diameter (maybe even larger).

 

My point is, and as has ariesjow mentioned, I don't believe that Nashville quite yet is prepared for pedestrian interaction at its roundabouts, especially with the current set-ups.  Hell, as a once typical urban distance walker in other towns, I've gotten such that with this town's poor and obstructed sidewalks, which often stop at nowhere, I've about given up trying to cross a city intersection at Interstate interchanges, in part because the angles of approach create skewed crossings which in turn makes them rather difficult to traverse safely, as traffic (particularly from behind) merges or diverges.  The same applies with roundabout approaches.  The way I see negotiating Nashv'l's roundabouts is to stay clear of any crossing and just pass the circle by remaining on the periphery walk (no short-cutting through the actual circle) and to reserve any cross-walking well before or after passing it.

 

Wherever that Gulch bridge is supposed to dump out, it might eventually require some traffic control, if it dumps out at an alignment near the KVB roundabout.

 

-==-

Edited October 18, 2014 by rookzie

[BrandonTO416]

As some of you may know, I'm back living in the mid state area thanks to the change in career situation. While I'm here I've been touring around town and I'm happy that a lot of projects are going on, but is there a central map anyone has created here showing all large projects in a nutshell?

[mirydi]

As some of you may know, I'm back living in the mid state area thanks to the change in career situation. While I'm here I've been touring around town and I'm happy that a lot of projects are going on, but is there a central map anyone has created here showing all large projects in a nutshell?

Welcome back Brandon!

 

smeagolsfree (Ron), has made an extensive map of all the development/projects going on pinned Nashville Development Map on the main page.

 

Here is a direct link.      

 

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php/topic/115749-nashville-development-map/

[smeagolsfree]

Hey there Brandon. Welcome back as well. There are 2 maps on that thread and the most current one does not have Franklin projects listed. Too much going on everywhere. Almost something on every other block when you add the small infill projects in that are not the map either.

Exciting times here for sure.

[bwithers1]

FYI - Metro Council is proposing a zoning ordinance to update restrictions on check cashing, title loan, cash advance and pawn shop businesses.  The three CMs are Karen Johnson (D29), Fabian Bedne (D31) and Jacobia Dowell (D32) in Southeast. 

 

Here is a local news story interviewing yours truly http://www.wsmv.com/story/26806885/metro-council-to-look-at-check-cashing-business-ordinance about an information session with the CMs that I am moderating tomorrow.  This one is on the Planning Commssion agenda for 10/23.

 

Here is a copy of the zoning code text change ordinance http://www.nashville.gov/mc/ordinances/term_2011_2015/bl2014_908.htm that the three CMs are proposing.

Edited October 17, 2014 by bwithers1

[nashmoney]

Electronic Arts moves video game scoring work to Nashville

 

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/music/2014/10/17/electronic-arts-moves-video-game-scoring-work-nashville/17440655/

 

From the article:

Tennessee’s right-to-work status played a role in bringing the scoring work, but Schnur said the move wouldn’t have worked if it wasn’t for Nashville’s talent. Skeptical of the local talent at first, composers have been sold on Nashville’s deep pool of musicians, who have already recorded several projects for EA, Schnur said.

“I chose Nashville because No. 1 the musicianship is as good as it gets. Nashville is not about just banjos and fiddles,” Schnur said. “It’s cellists and violinists and brass are equal to what I find in L.A. and London."

 

 

I'm glad someone realizes and is promoting that Nashville is just not all country music, as many outsiders tend to think.

[titanhog]

Electronic Arts moves video game scoring work to Nashville

 

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/music/2014/10/17/electronic-arts-moves-video-game-scoring-work-nashville/17440655/

 

From the article:

Tennessee’s right-to-work status played a role in bringing the scoring work, but Schnur said the move wouldn’t have worked if it wasn’t for Nashville’s talent. Skeptical of the local talent at first, composers have been sold on Nashville’s deep pool of musicians, who have already recorded several projects for EA, Schnur said.

“I chose Nashville because No. 1 the musicianship is as good as it gets. Nashville is not about just banjos and fiddles,” Schnur said. “It’s cellists and violinists and brass are equal to what I find in L.A. and London."

 

 

I'm glad someone realizes and is promoting that Nashville is just not all country music, as many outsiders tend to think.

Yes...we've done a poor job of letting the world know we are a true "music city."  There's a burgeoning EDM scene here...and rock will always be big...and many great orchestral musicians.

[BrandonTO416]

Where are the electronic venues? I'd be happy to hear.

[titanhog]

Where are the electronic venues? I'd be happy to hear.

I'm talking more of those who are creating EDM.  Not sure of any venues.

[BrandonTO416]

Hey there Brandon. Welcome back as well. There are 2 maps on that thread and the most current one does not have Franklin projects listed. Too much going on everywhere. Almost something on every other block when you add the small infill projects in that are not the map either.

Exciting times here for sure.

 

 

Franklin? Where's that?? LOL To be honest developments in that area interest me very little, mostly because development in those areas is a drain on what could have been centralized and making the city a better place.

 

Re: EDM, I thought there may be some venues worth going to. I don't even go to clubs anymore because none of them I've been to in the past several years had anything worth listening to. Its either too loud, too hip hoppy or whatever. The worst places I used to go to were the ones that tried to cater to everyone, its just weird listening to hip hop then country then pop then some perversion of electro... But then again my tastes have always been a little more European. DI.fm is my radio station.

 

As much as I'd like the music scene to be diverse in Nashville, I've never known it to be an electro city. If things have changed that much in a few years, all the better.

Edited October 18, 2014 by BrandonTO416

[BrandonTO416]

Welcome back Brandon!

 

smeagolsfree (Ron), has made an extensive map of all the development/projects going on pinned Nashville Development Map on the main page.

 

Here is a direct link.      

 

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php/topic/115749-nashville-development-map/

 

 

Thanks for the link, it is more expansive than I can keep up with.

[farm_boy]

Franklin? Where's that?? LOL To be honest developments in that area interest me very little, mostly because development in those areas is a drain on what could have been centralized and making the city a better place.

 

 

That's a shame. Places like Franklin and Bellvue and Mt. Juliet, etc. have many things to offer and add great value to our city

[BnaBreaker]

That's a shame. Places like Franklin and Bellvue and Mt. Juliet, etc. have many things to offer and add great value to our city

 

Well...Franklin and Mt. Juliet don't, because they aren't Nashville.  I mean, I'd rather have things go there than in Huntsville or Atlanta...but still, Brandon is right that most office developments built in Cool Springs or somewhere else in the burbs are just another jab against the city proper.  I'm not saying that the suburbs don't deserve prosperity, but when it comes down to it, I'm rooting for the original player. 

[NashvilleTaylor]

Where are the electronic venues? I'd be happy to hear.

Anthem is a popular EDM venue (it's at the corner of 12th and Porter) as is the Bridgestone Arena (Bassnector New Years Eve extravaganza)    I saw Zed's Dead at Anthem last summer, it was pretty sweet.

[BnaBreaker]

Anthem is a popular EDM venue (it's at the corner of 12th and Porter) as is the Bridgestone Arena (Bassnector New Years Eve extravaganza)    I saw Zed's Dead at Anthem last summer, it was pretty sweet.

 

Hodor from Game of Thrones is doing a DJ Set at Anthem on Dec. 12 hahaha...no really, he is.  lol

Edited October 18, 2014 by BnaBreaker

[titanhog]

Hodor from Game of Thrones is doing a DJ Set at Anthem on Dec. 12 hahaha...no really, he is.  lol

Hodor?  Hodor!  Hodor.

[grilled_cheese]

Electronic Arts is an awful company, not surprised that one of their main reasons to come to Nashville was due to the 'at will' work status.

 

Brandon, I think what you're referring to is what type of music a venue plays but the comment about Nashville being an EDM city is more pointing to the acts that play here.  As already mentioned, Bassnectar has sold out the last several NYEs at Bridgestone.  In 2009 he as playing Exit/In.  Cherub is an up and coming EDM act.  I wouldn't really say that venues are sticking to one genre anymore.  Sure there are the Anthems and Plays but most venues realize they have to book multiple styles if they want to have shows every other night.

 

Franklin is a great historic downtown but the Cool Springs area is drawing too many corporate offices.  Those should be in the downtown sector.  It already has and will continue to put a strain on the I-65 corridor south of Nashville.