Nashville: cranes, flying signs, and lots of glass

[futuresooner]

Photos taken of 10/9/2011 on a beautiful, 82 degree Autumn day. It has been a while since a Nashville photo thread has made an appearance, and all photos were taken with my iPhone 4.

scrapers and trusses


shining glass and whispy clouds



cranes for the Omni hotel and CMHOF expansion


the MCC moves along at Demonbreun & 5th Ave South


No walking because you'll fall into the Omni's construction pit


Crane #2 reaches skyward


one truly sees how huge this is when looking at the guy on the lift


core skyline from 5th Ave between Bridgestone Arena and Hilton hotel


stumbled upon the Fifth Third Center's new signage in the staging area, the lot is were Signature Tower was to rise at 5th & Church


she waits petiently for her new signs


rise up and live it up at The Viridian


a peek of the State Capitol with Nashville City Center and James K Polk State Office Tower


historic Printer's Alley is ready for fall


Regions' sign within a sign


love this residential reuse on Union Street


The original, the landmark, and the new kid on the block


the historic, Art Deco Kress Building on 5th


NCC's backside on Union


5/3 Financial Center


all sorts of stuff


BOA Plaza's Doubletree Hotel needs a bath and new windows


Deaderick Street's watchdog looms over on a limp flag day


lookie there, an old decomissioned Thunderbolt tornado siren beside Hotel Indigo


a peek at Music City Central, Nashville's central bus depot


trees and posts along Deaderick Street


fountains at the south end of the Courthouse Square, where 2nd Ave meets Union & Woodland Streets


Honey Locusts add a splash of golden fall color to the Square


Geeting a peek of Viridian between The Stahlman(L) and Hotel Indigo(R)


Gorgeous afternoon looking up the Deaderick Street Promenade towards the Tennessee Tower from Courthouse Square


Falling waters


The new A.A. Birch Courthouse that is so Art Deco


Waters and towers


the State Capitol looks mighty from a distance


The Deaderick Street Promenade rises towards Legislative Plaza


so many architectual styles in one block on Union between 2nd & 3rd Avenues


historic 5-star, 5-diamond Hermitage Hotel


the absolute NW corner of Nashville City Center


The Cumberland(L) and Renaissance Hotel(R) from NCC's outdorr plaza


The Nashville Public Library's main branch, downtown branch


The first attempt to hoist "Fifth" on the west side of the building. The line was too short and the wind from the copter was causing it to rock violently.


Bring her down and add a line extension


2nd time is the charm


A champion in the concrete environment, complete with a grasshopper


Glass everywhere


AT&T Tower rises towards the heavens


Nice use of a parking garage and R2D2


Pinnacle from Commerce St and 2nd Ave North


East face of AT&T Tower, one of Nashville's worst skyscrapers for street-level interaction


Skyline from Interstate Drive by LP Field

[arkitekte]

Thanks for these futuresooner! I wish you would have gone over to the Gulch though!

[Expat]

Fantastic photos! I iphone4 camera is really good. And so are you.

Love Printer's Alley with the pumpkins. I have never been to Nashville --- my loss.

[BnaBreaker]

Great shots! Thanks for posting them. That must have been impressive to witness in person.

Maybe sometime if you ever get time you could do a thread on some of the outer neighborhoods that rarely get exposure like West End, The Gulch, Germantown, Five Points, 12 South, Green Hills, Hillsboro Village, Elliston Place etc.

[RobertWalpole]

Very nice!

[futuresooner]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Great shots! Thanks for posting them. That must have been impressive to witness in person.

Maybe sometime if you ever get time you could do a thread on some of the outer neighborhoods that rarely get exposure like West End, The Gulch, Germantown, Five Points, 12 South, Green Hills, Hillsboro Village, Elliston Place etc.

I posted video of it in the city compilations section for Nashville.

I plan on getting Midtown and the Gulch soon.

[stepper77]

Nice job! I enjoyed Nashville the couple of times I visited. It looks like they are adding quite a bit. Thanks!

[ColDayMan]

Love Nashville.

[Shawn]

Looking good!

Who did the Pinnacle? Is it a Pelli?

[futuresooner]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Looking good!

Who did the Pinnacle? Is it a Pelli?

Nope, a Pickard Chilton original

[MidTenn1]

I took a few pictures on Sunday also.

The new East Bank park is well underway.


SoBro rising;


Omni Hotel (22 stories, 260 ft) site;


The old Nashville Bridge Company HQ being converted to Metro Parks HQ.


The Music City Center will cover six square blocks.


Two important buildings in SoBro (South of Broadway).


Looking from SoBro north to downtown.


And finally, the iconic picture of Nashvilles skyline;

[rriojas71]

Thanks for the photo tour... Don't see Nashville on here too often.

The one thing I noticed and I can't wrap my head around is why do the buildings in Nashville look so stumpy?... the AT&T tower, The Pinnacle & the R2D2 building all look too short for their designs. Almost like they are screaming to be about 20 stories taller or at least thinner in design. I'm not trying to insult Nashville, it was just something that caught my attention.

[arkitekte]

Originally Posted by rriojas71

Thanks for the photo tour... Don't see Nashville on here too often.

The one thing I noticed and I can't wrap my head around is why do the buildings in Nashville look so stumpy?... the AT&T tower, The Pinnacle & the R2D2 building all look too short for their designs. Almost like they are screaming to be about 20 stories taller or at least thinner in design. I'm not trying to insult Nashville, it was just something that caught my attention.

Something to do with height restrictions from the FAA...at least that's what I thought I read somewhere, but I could be and probably am wrong on that. Plus there's height restrictions from the city for buildings south of Broadway, where the Pinnacle is.

Futuresooner and MidTenn1 might be able to answer that question correctly.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by arkitekte

Something to do with height restrictions from the FAA...at least that's what I thought I read somewhere, but I could be and probably am wrong on that. Plus there's height restrictions from the city for buildings south of Broadway, where the Pinnacle is.

Futuresooner and MidTenn1 might be able to answer that question correctly.

Are you sure? I mean, Signature Tower was going to be 1,000 something feet tall, and the airport is like seven miles from downtown.

[arkitekte]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Are you sure? I mean, Signature Tower was going to be 1,000 something feet tall, and the airport is like seven miles from downtown.

Lol that's where I was confused, but I remember back in like 2006 people over on UP talking about FFA regulations with Signature Tower being so tall that the FAA would have to alter certain flight patters. But I'm not for sure how accurate that is because I've flown into BNA many many times and I've never been anywhere close to downtown.

I probably shouldn't have mentioned that because of lack of facts and no source, but its good conversation anyways.

[futuresooner]

There are no height restrictions in SoBro anymore, that was some stupid attempt to keep it within character or something like that. Metro Council repealed the ordinance because it made zero sense.

The FAA did have concerns over Signature Tower being 1,047ft, but they simply altered flight patterns around downtown that are now permanent because the longest runway, 13/31 at 11,030ft, points almost directly at downtown.

Part of the reason I'm sure is the pure demand for office space downtown, there really hasn't been massive influxes of large tenants that has driven the occupancy rates down and $ rates up enough to justify extremely tall office towers. The last large tenenat to move downtown was at the time Bellsouth, hence the Batman Building that was constructed because it was their Tennessee HQ. The Pinnacle is about 70% leased or so and there is still plenty of space in the larger tower, the Regions Center is nearly 50% vacant and needs a serious facelift. The next gamechanged could be the State of Tennesee and their lease in the L&C Tower, which I believe is over 50% of the total floorspace for it. Rumors are if they leave then the owners of L&C would convert it into apartments but that rumor has been around for some time and not sure when the state's lease is up.

[MidTenn1]

My last takeoff left plenty of room to spare over downtown.