Nashville's downtown to change faster than ever

I’ve always been fascinated with architecture and central city layouts.  As a youngster, I spent many a Saturday wandering around downtown Columbus, OH taking notes and sketching various structures.  I enjoyed the classic lines of the white limestone State Capitol, but was equally enticed by new highrise bank buildings, and urban renewal tracts.  I read Architecture Digest, and would work for hours on my own designs for public and private sector buildings, boulevards, parks, and stadia. 

Hence, I considered myself a bit of an amateur city planner, taking note of new projects and plans in whatever metropolis I have lived in.  Being a proud citizen of Nashville for a quarter century now, I have watched as our downtown area has made some significant changes.

In the 80s into the early 90s we saw the initial Nashville Convention Center, the Fifth Third Center and US Bank towers, Renaissance Hotel, Double Tree Hotel, James K. Polk Bldg. (including Tennessee Performing Arts Center), One Nashville Place, Nashville City Center, two state office buildings along James Robertson Parkway, and the Church Street Shopping Mall built.

The true boom really began around 1994.  In the past eighteen years or so, there has been a remarkable expansion that has rendered photos of the downtown area before that era nearly unrecognizable.  Consider all these changes:

·      Bridgestone Arena. 18,500 capacity. Home of Nashville Predators NHL hockey team and 100 other concerts/events per year.

·      LP Field. 70,000 capacity. Home of Tennessee Titans NFL team.

·      Bicentennial Mall State Park

·      Downtown Library (built on the site of the former Church Street Mall)

·      Schermerhorn Symphony Hall

·      Country Music Hall of Fame

·      Gateway Bridge

·      Music City Center (new convention center)

·      Davidson County Justice Building

·      AT&T Center, aka “The Batman Building” (40 stories, tallest in state at 617 feet)

·      The Hilton Hotel  (13 stories)

·      Omni Hotel (23 stories)

·      Baker Donaldson Building (11 stories)

·      Sun Trust Plaza (13 stories)

·      Cumberland Apartments (28 stories)

·      Encore Condominiums (21 stories)

·      Veridian Condominiums (35 stories)

·      Icon Condominiums (22 stories)

·      Terrazzo Condominiums (14 stories)

·      The Pinnacle Place (30 stories)

·      Hyatt Place Hotel (11 stories)

·      Music City Central Metro Transit Terminal

·      New Greyhound Bus Station

·      Musicians Hall of Fame into first level of Municipal Auditorium

·      Nashville Rescue Mission (conversion from old Sears Building)

·      Farmers Market remodeling

·      Frist Center for the Arts (conversion from US Post Office Bldg.)

·      Davidson County Courthouse remodeling

·      Public Square Park (with 4 level garage underneath)

·      Hall of Fame Park (with 4 level garage underneath)

·      Korean Veterans Blvd. (KVB)

·      Roundabout at 8^th Ave., Lafayette Ave., and KVB

·      Ryman Auditorium remodeling

·      War Memorial Auditorium remodeling

·      Cummins Station remodeling

·      Stahlman Building remodeling into condos

·      Shelby Street Bridge remodeled into pedestrian walkway

·      Riverfront Park upgrades

·      Cumberland River Park

·      Bridge Building remodeling

·      Numerous other smaller apartment/condo buildings and remodels in The Gulch

·      Broadway revitalization with many new restaurants and shops

·      2^nd Avenue revitalization

·      Rutledge Hill revitalization

·      Marathon Village revitalization

·      Germantown revitalization

As impressive as all of that is, consider that in the next five years, downtown Nashville will see the most construction in its history that will radically change the look, feel, and function of the city…

·      505 Church Street Tower. 60 stories, 750 feet. Corner of 5^th Ave. and Commerce St. Mixture of offices, condos, and hotel. Plus 700 car garage.

·      Sheet Music Tower, 44 stories, 500 feet tall. Corner of 4^th Ave. and Demonbreun St. Mixture of offices and condos.  600 car garage.

·      SoBro Apartment Tower. 33 stories, 400 feet tall.  Primarily apartments, with some retail, restaurants.  Plus 500 car garage (Two renderings below).

·      Westin Hotel. 30 stories. 410 feet, 8^th/KVB Roundabout .  Plus 400 car garage.  A couple of restaurants. No artist renderings yet.

·      Adelcia Condo Tower. 23 stories. 270 ft. tall.  Corner of 12^th Ave. and Demonbreun St.. in the Gulch. All condos.  Plus 400 car garage.

·      NCC Site Tower. 28 stories. 380 ft. tall.  Corner of Broadway and 5^th Avenue (site of old convention center).  Mix of offices, condos, entertainment, restaurants.  Also will include African American Music Museum, and House of Blues Club.

·      Crescent Apartment Building. 20 stories. 250 feet tall.  Corner of Division St. and I-65. All apartments.  Plus 300 car garage. No artist renderings yet.

·      Hyatt Hotel. 17 stories.  250 feet tall. Corner of Broadway and 3^rd Avenue.  A couple of restaurants. Plus 300 car garage.

·      Marriott Hotel. 15 stories, 200 feet tall. Corner of 8^th Avenue and Demonbreun St.  Couple of restaurants. 250 car garage.

·      Gulch Crossing Office Bldg. 10 stories, 130 feet tall. Corner of Demonbreun and 11^th Ave. in The Gulch.  Plus 300 car garage. 

·      Four Seasons Hotel. 10 stories. 150 feet tall.  In the Gulch (site still being negotiated). Plus 200 car garage. No artist rendering yet.

·      Hilton Garden Inn Hotel. 12 stories. 170 feet tall. Corner of 2^nd Ave. and KVB. Plus 200 car garage.

·      12^th and Laurel Apartments. 12 stories. 150 feet tall. Corner of 12^th Ave. and Laurel St. in The Gulch.  Plus 200 car garage.

·      Marriott Residence Inn. 14 stories. 180 feet tall.  Corner of 5^th Ave. and KVB. Plus 200 car garage. No artist renderings yet.

·      Spring Hill Suites. 12 stories. 150 feet tall. Corner of 5^th Ave. and KVB.  Plus 200 car garage. No artist renderings yet.

·      Sulpher Dell Baseball Stadium.  Home of Nashville Sounds AAA baseball team. 10,000 capacity. Corner of 5^th and Jackson St. Plus 1,000 car garage.

·      Sulpher Dell Stadium Apartments. Corner of 3rd^th and Jackson.  Plus 200 car garage. (see layout above)

·      Sulpher Dell Stadium district development. Corners of 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and Harrison.  Numerous restaurants, clubs, and shops. (see layout above)

·      Gulch/SoBro Pedestrian Bridge. 600 feet long, 30 feet wide, with 160 foot tall suspension tower. From Pine Street in Gulch, over railroad yard into Clark St. Will include foliage, benches, bike paths, shops, and elevators at both ends.

·      New Tennessee State Museum. Corner of 6^th Ave. and Harrison. Plus 200 car garage. No artist renderings yet.

·      New Tennessee State Library.  Corner of 6^th Ave. and Jackson St. Plus 200 car garage. No artist renderings yet.

·      Riverfront Amphitheater and Park. Capacity of 2,000 to 8,000 for seasonal concerts, events. Corner of 1^st Ave. and KVB.

·      Stix Art Sculpture in Roundabout at KVB and 8^th Ave. 90 feet tall, and internally lit at night.

Beyond these that are in the formal planning stage, I also see further changes on the immediate horizon:

·      Several more major hotels in the blocks immediately around the Music City Center, especially along KVB and around the 8^th Ave/KVB/Lafayette St. Roundabout.

·      SoBro, especially along First Avenue opposite of the new Riverfront Amphitheater, and on the three other corners at KVB should have major structures in place by 2020.

·      The East Bank of the Cumberland River should also finally see relocation of the scrap metal recycling plant, opening up a huge 500 acre area for housing, retail, and entertainment which could include a boat marina, continuation of Cumberland River Park, big box retail outfits like Ikea, condominiums, restaurant park, cycling velodrome, etc.

·      The large 200 acre tract at corner of Charlotte Ave. and I-40/65 has now been completely cleared.  Something large is going to be announced soon.  Could it be a massive complex for HCA?  Could it be The Gulch North? One thing is certain, it is valuable property with great access, and it will end up having as much impact on the northwest side of downtown as the Gulch did for the southwest sector.

·      Jefferson Street corridor revitalization brought on by Sulpher Dell Ballpark, apartments, and new Tennessee State Library and Museum.

·      Rutledge Hill, Germantown, Marathon Village, and Gulch revitalization continuing with multiple additional apartment and condo buildings, homes, duplexes, restaurants, and shops.

Additionally, just outside the inner-belt that surrounds downtown, there are numerous other neighborhoods that will see continued development:

·      Midtown (just west of downtown along Broadway and West End Ave.) as had a spike of construction in the past decade.  That will continue with the Summit Center (featuring 24 and 18 story towers and garages), the 19 story tall 1505 Demonbreun Apartments, The Buckingham Complex (14 story hotel, 18 story condo, 10 story offices at 21^st Ave. and Broadway), more mid-size and small hotels, and high end restaurants.

·      8^th Avenue South and 12 South will continue adding more condos, apartments, retail and restaurants, along with the continued housing boom (remodels and rebuilds)

·      East Nashville’s Main/Woodland Corridor leading out to Five Points. More condos and apartments, retail, restaurants, churches, and continued housing boom (remodels and rebuilds).

·      Metro Center continues its decades long growth with more corporate headquarters,  auto sales/service, education elements, and entertainment.

·      Fisk Univ./Meharry Hospital area along Jefferson Street will continue its revitalization with more apartments, retail, and entertainment, and housing remodels and rebuilds.

·      The J. Henry Hale Housing Development 10 square blocks along the western edge of I-64/40 and Charlotte Ave. will continue to grow, bringing in more retail and businesses.

·      Belmont University shows no signs of slowing down, and could become Nashville’s largest university (jumping past Vandy) within a few years.  This means continued purchasing in area neighborhoods and constructing additional educational and service structures, as well as even more dormitories.

·      Vanderbilt is not finished either.  Both on the collegiate and medical center sides. 

·      Travecca University is also growing, but not at quite the same pace.  A few new structures will be built there. 

Other areas in the center city that will see significant attention in the next 5 years:

·      Greer Stadium Site (soon to be former home of the minor league baseball team). Could become part of a Civil War Museum complex to go along with the recently renovated Fort Negly on the hill immediately next to it.  Some think it may become a high tech business park.  Others think it could be trendy housing for the arts district that is developing a few blocks away.

·      Old State Fairgrounds site.  This has been debated for the past decade.  But movement will finally happen within the next half decade.  My guess is that it will be a mixed use site of high tech, condos, apartments, and some retail/restaurant.

·      North Cumberland stretch along the river from Woodland Ave. up to Spring St.  This is all industrial warehousing now, but the views of downtown are spectacular along here, and I see some high rise condos, apartments, and other upgrades in the not-to-distant future.  Perhaps even a major league baseball stadium in the next ten to fifteen years?

All in all, in the next half-decade there are going to be more construction cranes, cement trucks, road detours, and hardhats within a two mile radius of The Ryman than Music City has ever seen before. Some may bemoan it, but I, for one, am very bullish on what all this means for our city and its future.  

Trouser Trauma

With the massive brood of cicadas in full swing here in Tennessee and environs, I thought I would pull out an old blog about a bizarre experience I had on a first date during the last invasion…

Annie was a lovely lass that I had thought was fetching for quite some time, and after a lot of patience and planning, things finally worked out that we could go on a first date. She had some work that brought her to my side of town, and we rendezvoused at my place on a warm May evening. After some fun pleasantries, we decided to walk over to Bosco’s, a local eatery, for dinner.

As some of you may recall, the spring of ’98 marked the return of the of the thirteen year cicada across the Mid South. This odd occurrence can transform normally peaceful, spring days in Nashville into a buzz saw of chattering mating calls from literally tens of millions (perhaps even billions?) of a benign sort of locust. They have been gestating in underground cocoons for a baker’s dozen of summers, and now they ooze to the surface, and crawl up the nearest tree where they grow to around two inches in size, molting along the way, and fairly screaming their ear splitting love songs in attempts of “hooking up.” Once the females have been impregnated, they implant eggs in the bark of trees, which in turn hatch a few days later and drop to the ground, and they somehow burrow inward for the process to begin all over again. Meanwhile, the mature brownish green bugs, with their red “eyes” and translucent wings, flutter about for a few days of “gettin’ it on” before dying relatively quick deaths. When Tom Petty wrote “The Waiting is the Hardest Part,” I wonder if he had these crazed caeliferas in mind.

What can not be emphasized enough, for those of you not familiar with this phenomenon, is the preponderance of these critters. They are everywhere—especially dominating neighborhoods with trees, covering nearly every square inch of bark, making the trunks look like they are undulating with movement. Flying about recklessly (and harmlessly), they can be particularly irritating to those with long hair. I’ve seen more than one woman freak out from one getting entangled in her locks.

Lawnmowers are attractive to these hovering grasshoppers due to the vibration and noise. So, as you cut your yard, you have to swat thousands of these away, and sometimes even have to clean out the rotary encasement from the gizzard goo that accumulates around the shaft and blades. They also wreak havoc on cars, splattering by the dozens on grilles and windshields with every errand you run. Sales of window-washing fluid skyrocket during these months. I had one sneak into the interior of my Chevy Cavalier once, wedging itself into the air vents of my dashboard. For several days I had to endure its mournful squeals every time I turned on the AC.

As Annie and I strolled through my heavily wooded neighborhood towards the restaurant, we recounted some of our run-ins with these winged creatures, being serenaded by the massive swells of volume as they harmonize in their mating song. It was so loud at times, it rendered conversation almost useless. We couldn’t help but have several crunchy moments underfoot, too, as the husks of evolving bugs were scattered thickly along our path. We just laughed, and batted a few away as they came near us, or occasionally landed on us---you get used to them pretty quickly.

With this being our first date and all, I was trying to play things particularly cool. So, when I felt one of these fellows land on my neck, I calmly tried to flick it away. However, it slid down the back of my shirt instead, fluttering about in the bunching fabric down near my belt. Being somewhat ticklish, I began to giggle. I thought I would try to hold out until we got to the restaurant and I would then eradicate the winged thumper while cleaning up in the men’s room. After about a block further of striding towards our destination, the bug’s hyperactivity got the best of me, and I finally decided to admit my ordeal to Annie. She stood in a mixture amusement and amazement at my calm as I pulled out my shirt tale and shook it. For all intents and purposes, I should’ve been caterwauling about the sidewalk having a conniption fit. But, with the confident demeanor of James Bond under extreme duress, I defused the tickling time bomb. It was hard to tell if I set the spittlebug free, because there was so many others darting about in the air and on the ground.

Once we were seated at Bosco’s, I sensed something was amiss. You see, the sport shirt I was wearing was of medium length, and so as not to have the tail popping out from my waist continually, I had tucked it into the top edge of my boxers underneath—a common practice employed by a fair amount of guys when necessary. Well, it appeared that in the process of pulling the shirt out a few minutes earlier, I had actually created a ramp for the pest to slide snuggly down towards the inner sanctum of my undies. The leaf hopper sought after a space where it wouldn’t be squashed, and once I was seated it found such sanctuary in the upper crevasse between my glutal cheeks— the northern end of my butt crack, as it were. At first I thought it might be a just the discarded exoskeleton of the intruder, as there was just an awareness of a foreign object. But when said entity began to migrate towards more space, I realized I was in trouble. He was alive, irritated, and on the march.

Annie was regaling me with a fun story about her youth in Kansas City, and I had been enamored with her dancing blue eyes, lilting laugh, and just charmed out of my gourd with her simple beauty. But I was quickly becoming duplicitous in my agenda. While trying to stay engaged with our repartee, I simultaneously was “negotiating” with this groping grasshopper.

Here was my plan: I began shifting weight back and forth on my haunches trying to move the foreigner away from the center, where I would then, in my warped reasoning of the moment, crush the life out of it with one of my bums. This, however, proved problematic…for the more I squirmed (very surreptitiously, I might add, so as not to alarm Annie), the more the katydid burrowed towards any free space.

In about half a minute, it had worked its way to the most nether region. I now felt it fidgeting around my---how do I say this delicately---scrotum. The sensation made certain very personal probes during annual physical exams seem like a walk in the park in comparison.

It would be hilarious to see what my facial expressions were during this torment. On one hand I was being so debonair with Annie, trying desperately to be affirming and involved with her childhood story, while simultaneously avoiding gritting my teeth and grimacing from the sordid sensations emanating from my crotch.

My male pride wouldn’t allow me to come clean about it at this juncture, since I had already used up my “quirky equity” when I tried to discard the bug out on the street. And I didn’t want to cut her off in mid-story for fear of it appearing rude. I was just going to wait for closure to her tale, then excuse myself to wash up. Annie was none the wiser, and she kept chatting away.

As I would be nodding my head and chuckling along with her commentary, I’m sure I made responses along the lines of “uh-huh…yea…OHH! (eyes suddenly widening)...uh-huh…(chuckle)…I see..EEEEeee (jaw tightening as my body would spasm ever so slightly)…well, of course you should haaaAAAAAVE.”

After another minute or two of this (seemed more like a fortnight), Annie could sense something was not up to par. She interrupted her train of thought with a concerned “are you alright?” At that juncture I think the bush cricket decided to try a double summersault into a full gainer somewhere near my “taint” and I blurted out “well, remem-BERRR (sharp breath) that cicada in my-YYYYYY shirt a few minutes AAAAgo?”

Her eyes gleamed and she said “yeah….?” as a smile began to break across her lovely face.

“Well, he’s taken up residence iii-IIIIIII-n my drawers, and seems to be-eEEEE trying out some M.C. Ha-ha-ha-HAAAAmmer moves down there. Do you mind if I-YI-YI-YI excuse myself?!”

We couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. She said “Oh my God—go NOW!”

Once again, trying to maintain a cool exterior, I got up from the table and tried walking with my butt cheeks clenched, even though my little passenger was vibrating to beat the band. After sauntering about twenty-five feet across the main floor, I turned out of her sight and into the hallway leading to the restrooms, and sprinted the final five yards.

Once inside I furiously unbuckled and “dropped trow” as I tried to eradicate the chirping interloper. Two other gentlemen glared at me with awkward bemusement as I tried to explain my ordeal while simultaneously slapping and clawing away at my exposed daddy-parts. They kind of leaned up against the wall so as to not get too close, chortling at my predicament. I’m sure they had some lovely table talk at my expense when they returned to their dates…but who could blame them?

I dispatched my lil’ French tickler and brought his short life to an even hastier demise with a firm squash of my right penny loafer. Turns out it was one of the newly hatched cicadas, a teneral, that was a bit smaller, still whitish in color and a bit dopey in the early stages of its short life. I didn’t want this to take too long, but it seemed to take forever trying to clean up. I kept worrying that Annie would think I was a total spazzoid.

Eventually, I made it back out to her. She was such a sweetheart about the whole thing, and we tittered about it on and off through the rest of our dinner.

So, if you ever see me acting out of sorts and wonder what my deal is, I can safely attest that I have indeed had a “bug up my ass” on at least one occasion, and have a pretty good idea what that’s all about. Therefore, you may have to use another term to question what my problem might be. One thing’s for sure, thinking back on it helps me not take too many other strange things that befall me too seriously now.