Civic
Design Center Makes Capitol Boulevard Proposals
The City Paper
By William Williams
April 18, 2002
Nashville Civic Design Center officials are recommending changes that
would help strengthen the Capitol Boulevard’s connection to the Legislative
Plaza/State Capitol and the Main Library.
The center has finalized schematic plans for the Mayor’s Office and Metro department heads, according to John Houghton, NCDC interim executive director. Those plans will be on view at the Main Library’s second floor stairwell area through May 14. “ One of the key findings is that Capitol Boulevard has been a place that is ‘in-between’ rather than a place in and of itself,” Houghton said.
Houghton said a four-person Civic Design Center team began assessing the one-block Capitol Boulevard last summer, studying historical photos and compiling analytical drawings. The results are the three plans now on view, Houghton said. In each, there are various options for parking, planters, trees, benches, cobblestone walkways, etc. One of the drawings includes a median. “ How do you make the street more enjoyable and memorable for pedestrians?” Houghton asked. “Capitol Boulevard is unique by virtue of its location and history.”
Since a 1979 overhaul,
Capitol Boulevard has been a hodgepodge of architectural styles, outdated
tree planters,
cumbersome parking
spot arrangements
(some short-term parking is allowed), and as Mark Schimmenti, NCDC
design director,
calls it, “a west side that is pedestrian unfriendly. “
Fix the street and the whole relationship — the sequence of civic
space — is now complete,” Schimmenti said. “You
could walk with dignity and be impressed by the elegant connection. ”Schimmenti
said Capitol Boulevard’s history is such that the street
needs to be given the dignity it had prior to the building of the
Legislative Plaza, when Capitol Boulevard stretched to Charlotte
Avenue.
“
It’s important to remember the military veterans of Tennessee,” he
said. “Every Tennessean who marched off to World War I started
on Capitol Boulevard and moved on to Union Station. And there were
military parades along the route.
”Any improvements would be welcomed, according to some who work on the street. Ronny Greer, managing partner with Work & Greer PC (located at 206 Capitol Blvd.) and a member of the Nashville Downtown Partnership, said a streetscape improvement project could allow Capitol Boulevard to be more versatile. “ My thoughts are Capitol Boulevard could work something like Bourbon Street [in New Orleans],” Greer said. “It could be used for parking but at times the city could barricade it for festivals.”
Lyn Lenahan, director of sales and marketing for The Hermitage Hotel, said hotel officials are hopeful some improvements can be made, particularly considering the hotel is being given a roughly $15 million facelift, to be completed next February. “ We’re beginning to have all the ingredients for a pedestrian street,” said Lynahan, who frequently walks from The Hermitage Hotel to the Main Library.