Nashville
is Finally Getting a Civic Design Center
By Christine Kreyling
December 4, 2000
Nashville Scene
Want to know why closing streets is a bad way to calm traffic--and how to do it right? Or how to make a town center from an amorphous collection of strip malls and subdivisions? Nashville is finally going to have a place where you can get some answers.
Next Monday--at 10 a.m. in the First Amendment Center on Vanderbilt's Peabody campus--Mayor Bill Purcell will announce the birth of a not-for-profit interdisciplinary center devoted to civic design. The center will provide an independent and politically neutral ground for the development of a three-dimensional vision for Nashville.
The Nashville Civic Design Center will focus on the area within the old city limits. That's the same geography where recent zoning modifications now permit development that is urban rather than suburban in character--buildings set close to the street and close to each other, with on-street and shared parking, and with mixed-use structures and corner stores to minimize our dependence on cars to do our daily business. As a non-regulatory institution, the design center's power will be as great as its ability to explain to the Nashville community how and why such principles will make a better city.
It will serve the citizens who have a vested interest in the built environment. Developers can seek advice on how to make plans that serve neighborhoods as well as their own bottom lines. Neighborhood organizations can learn planning techniques to revitalize failing commercial districts without causing traffic jams. Council members can use the center to help untie knotty planning problems in their districts. Most important, the design center will be the town meeting hall for planning and design strategies. Its staff will stage public workshops, offering academic expertise on current planning theories and defusing the emotions that so often surround development projects before they reach the stage of a shouting match at a Council meeting.
Nashville's Civic Design Center will stand on legs crafted by educational institutions, Metro government, and the private sector. University of Tennessee College of Architecture faculty member Mark Schimmenti and a postgraduate intern are offering the design smarts for the center. Schimmenti is an architect and urban designer who headed the design team that produced "The Plan for SoBro," published by the Scene in 1997. He also served on the master planning team for the area surrounding the Bicentennial Mall.
Vanderbilt University is adding James Sandlin to the mix. Sandlin, a former dean and Vanderbilt's community-relations expert, will head the center's administration and community-outreach efforts. Tennessee State University has also expressed a strong interest in participating, but the details of its role have yet to be established.
Metro will provide some financial support for the design center, as well as contribute the half-time services of Metro staff from three departments: the Planning Department, the Metro Development and Housing Agency, and Public Works. Center supporters will look to a variety of community and private sources for the rest of the funding needed to keep the doors open for an initial three years.
The Nashville Civic Design Center fulfills a Purcell campaign promise, but the concept has a grassroots pedigree. For years, this writer and other Nashvillians who favored a revival of traditional planning principles as an alternative to suburban sprawl have gazed longingly at design centers in other cities. We watched centers come on board in Louisville (1987), Birmingham (1989), Chattanooga (1990), and Lexington, Ky. (1995)--and witnessed how they helped to reweave the fabric of their respective cities.
In 1995, this core group of urbanists organized the Nashville Urban Design Forum to pave the way for such a center. The forum sponsored classes, taught by Schimmenti, in basic principles of civic design. Members began to hold monthly meetings focused on design and planning issues facing the city--where to put a new downtown library, for example, and how to turn the Franklin Corridor into a boulevard. Purcell, then with the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, paid his membership dues, listened, and liked what he heard.
Some operating details, such as where the center will be housed, remain undetermined. The planning team is currently exploring a location in the Gulch, as well as the old Neuhoff packing plant on the Cumberland River north of downtown, an in-process renovation venture by the McRedmond family and the home of Nashville Cultural Arts Project. The design center's 13-member board, which will establish priorities among the many possible projects the design team could study, has yet to be named.
The design center's big-picture thinking about Nashville's downtown and urban neighborhoods will complement the work of other planning organizations. As the government insider, Metro's Planning Department is part of the political process rather than outside it. And the planning staffers are, by necessity, implementers rather than visionaries. Meanwhile, a new not-for-profit supported by Vanderbilt--Cumberland Region Tomorrow--will bring a regional perspective to the planning table, focusing on systems like transportation that bring Middle Tennessee together.
It's taken a long pregnancy and hard labor to deliver a design center to Nashville. I for one will greet the new arrival with a cheer.
VIPPS leads
way for Nashville’s forthcoming Civic
Design Center
By
Tara S. Donahue
January 8-14, 2001
Vanderbilt Register
After three years
of discussion and planning with various community organizations, local
universities, and the Vanderbilt
Institute for Public Policy Studies, the
Nashville Civic Design Center will begin operations in January, Nashville
Mayor Bill Purcell announced last month.
Purcell described the new center as the “creative conscience” to
shape the city’s future by serving as a resource center and forum for neighborhood
activists, builders, and planners to work together to help develop Nashville’s
urban environment.
“It will provide a means for the public to participate in issues that relate to the planning and physical growth of our city. And, for all of us, both public servants and private citizens, it will raise our consciousness – and our expectations- about what our urban environment can, and should, look like,” Purcell said.
The State and Local Policy Center at VIPPS and Vanderbilt have been heavily involved with the creation of the Design Center, for the past six years.
“Like VIPPS, the Civic Design Center will continue to build upon the strong-sometimes unlikely- partners, including government, both state and local, private business, neighborhood, and arts organizations, architects, engineers, and preservationists,” said Debi Tate, director of the State and Local Policy Center at VIPPS.
While
VIPPS’ role in initiating the project is drawing to a conclusion,
Vanderbilt will continue to be involved with the center. James Sandlin,
director of special projects, for State and Local Community Neighborhood
and Government
Relations, is serving as executive director.
Michael J. Schoenfeld, vice chancellor for public affairs, was also
recognized at the press conference for his role in getting the center
off the ground.
Various colleges including Vanderbilt, the University of Tennessee and Tennessee State University will staff the Nashville Civic Design Center. Interns from these universities are also expected to work at the center as well as a small number of employees from Metro Government.
Projects such as these where independent groups – universities, government and local organizations-come together for a common cause is one mission of VIPPS.
“While the subject matter may vary, VIPPS continues to serve as a bridge between the academic and research world,” said Tate. “From pulling together various constituencies interested in growth and planning, to the publication of the Pierce Report, a study of middle Tennessee growth and transportation options, to assisting in the development of this Civic Design Center, we are committed to continued, long-term involvement in the world of public policy.”
Cities such as Chattanooga, Lexington, Kentucky; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington; have implemented similar design entities for their cities. The Nashville Civic Design Center will operate as an independent, not-for-profit organization. Funding will come from private sources and community development block grants.
Development think tank scheduled to open June 1
By Jim East
Sunday, April
8, 2001
The Tennessean
The Nashville Civic Design Center, Mayor Bill Purcell’s brainchild to help the city look and work better, should be open by June 1. its top official says.
“It’s exciting to have people ready for us to open, and I think the need is there,” said Kim Hawkins president of the non-profit planning resource center’s 15-member board.
She said a lease has been signed and construction has begun on 3,000 square feet of space in the Bernie Dillon Building, at 700 Church St., adjacent to the new downtown public library.
“The center will be open to everyone, to Metro government, to the development community, to neighborhood associations and other nonprofit institutions,” Hawkins said.
When Purcell announced the center on Dec. 18, he said it would be a “think tank” that would “push for codes and ordinances that work” and also serve as a “bully pulpit for all citizens who care about the growth of our city.”
Vanderbilt University has loaned James Sandlin, its director of special projects, and will pay his salary to head the center, and the University of Tennessee- Knoxville has loaned associate architecture and design professor Mark Schimmenti to be design director and will pay part of his salary, as well as that of a design assistant position. Metro government staffers from planning, public works and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency also will work at the center, as will two to five interns.
“This is also a very strong partnership between Vanderbilt University and
UT,” Hawkins said.
The board will have a retreat in the next three weeks to develop
a process for project evaluations and how the center will function
once
it opens.
Other officers are vice president Seab Tuck, treasurer Martin Roberts and secretary Clay Petrey Jr. Board members include Joe Barker, Paulette Coleman, May Dean Eberling, Mike Fitts, Bert Mathews, Denise McBride, Kate Monaghan, Jeff Ockerman, Ed Owens, Calvin Richardson, Martin Roberts, and Stroud Watson.
One-third of the board represents designer interests, one-third commercial real estate and one third social interests, Hawkins said.
“We really are taking a very multidisciplinary look at issues- we’re
not just having architects in or landscape architects, but it’s really
a broad base, and that’s what we’ve tried to represent in our board
as well to make sure we’re getting a kind of holistic perspective.”
Hawkins said the board wants to develop a “pro-active vision of
what the city of Nashville and Davidson County can be.”
About one-third of the center’s $500,000 annual budget will come from Metro- $100,00, of it in block grants from MDHA. Foundations will contribute “a good portion,” such as the $100,000set-up donation from the Frist Foundation.
Hawkins said the
center also would pursue money from the National Endowment of the Arts
and other grants. A “small portion” of financing
will come from the local community.
New design center ponders its role in planning Nashville
Nashville Business Journal - April 27, 2001
A year ago, when Mayor Bill Purcell assembled a committee of seven people to consider how to implement a civic design center, he didn't have to look far for ideas.
Already on his transition team was Kim Hawkins, an original advisor to the five-year-old Urban Design Forum, a loose-knit group of developers, architects and community leaders with an interest in urban design.
During his campaign for office, Purcell had discussed the creation of a civic design center similar to those already established in Cincinnati, Memphis, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Charlotte, and Louisville, Ky. And members of the Urban Design Forum quickly took a role in helping decide how to structure a Nashville design center and what role it should play for the city's growth.
The result has been the Civic Design Center, a nonprofit organization announced four months ago and already making moves to become a force in urban design downtown and throughout the city.
"Our organization will focus on downtown Nashville, although we will have an interest in all of Metro Nashville," explains James Sandlin, director of special projects for the Civic Design Center.
The new entity, at 700 Church Street on the ground floor of the Bennie Dillon Building, is uncommon among design centers. Similar organizations typically follow one of three different models: an agency with regulatory powers working within city government, a nonprofit focusing on affordable housing and community development or a center operating as a hybrid with assistance from one university.
"Our structure here is unlike any other we have seen," explains Hawkins. "We absolutely want to bring in other Middle Tennessee universities into this process. There is room for all universities to participate."
Vanderbilt
has loaned Sandlin to the center as an executive and will continue
to pay his salary. The University of Tennessee-Knoxville
has loaned professor
Mark Schimmenti to be the design director and will pay a portion
of his salary and benefits. It will also provide a design assistant.
Each
representative
will work for about 20 hours a week at the center.
Unlike similar organizations in other cities, the center is multi-disciplinary.
It's not made up of a single interest group trying to push its
agenda on the city landscape. The organization also involves
collaboration between city departments,
including a representative from the Metropolitan Planning Department,
Metropolitan
Public Works and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.
Back to school
The genesis for the design center sprang from an urban design class offered to local executives in 1995 by Schimmenti.
The class which touched on urban design, smart growth and a host of other city planning topics - encouraged many to put what they learned into practice, says Hawkins, now president of the Civic Design Center's board of directors.
"There were a lot of people who finished the class saying, `Man, my interest is really peaked,'" Hawkins says.
Indeed, alumni of the class quickly formed the Urban Design Forum to be an organization of urban design-conscious individuals. The group met at Vanderbilt's Institute of Public Policy. The idea was to bring people together who had similar ideas about Nashville's urban growth and the direction it should take.
"They talked about civic design issues - things that would make the city work better," says Sandlin.
Issues like the Music Row Roundabout and the Gaylord Entertainment Center were open for discussion.
Now Metro government is providing almost one-third of the Civic Design Center's $500,000 annual budget, including a bloc grant from MDHA. The center's 15-member board is broken down into thirds with a group coming from design, community interests and real estate development.
While the group has a new name, a new headquarters and a new structure, the mission is much the same.
Organizers plan is to open the Civic Design Center for work by June 1. Its members have begun discussing exactly how to accept work and process it for the community. They will also spend a great deal of time trying to make the community aware of the center's job and role in urban development.
Hawkins says community
awareness will be the greatest challenge the center faces.
"You have to educate people first about the issues so they know why they
are important," she says.
Nashville Civic Design Center opens doors to public
The Urban Journal - Week of August 1, 2001
All those concerned about the future look of Nashville are invited to an open house at the new Nashville Civic Design Center on August 9. The center, which is located at 700 Church St., will have a public reception from 4 to 6 p.m.
“The mission of the Design Center is to provide a central source of advice for the design of livable and vital urban spaces in Metro Nashville,” said James Sandlin, the executive director. “It also serves as a community resource for the educationand advocacy of these issues.”
The center, which was announced last December by Mayor Bill Purcell, is located in the historic Bennie-Dillon Building, convenient to the architectural design firms, the development companies, Metro department and the public.
“The Design Center and its staff are working with government departments and elected officials, neighborhoods and property owners, and professional groups of architects and engineers to establish a strong vision for our city,” said Mark Schimmenti, the design director. “We are striving to develop the highest standards for contemporary community design.”
Current projects include the Rolling Mill Hill, site locations for an expanded convention center and a new symphony hall, and a redesigned Capitol Boulevard. Founding sponsors for the center, which is supported through public and private funding, are The Frist Foundation, the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, Metro government, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.
Sandlin, a longtime administrator at Vanderbilt, and Schimmenti, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee’s College of Architecture and Design, are on “loan” to the Design Center, as well as three staff members of Metro government. Inters from the universities of Leiden (The Netherlands), Tennessee and Virginia will assist the center’s staff.
Design center opens doors to public
Improving Metro livability is facility’s job
By
Jim East
Sunday, August 5, 2001
The Tennessean
The new Nashville
Civic Design Center, Mayor Bill Purcell’s brainchild
to help the city look and work better, will celebrate its opening at a Thursday
open house and public reception.
It will be from 4 to 6 p.m. in the center’s 3,000-square-foot offices
in the historic Bennie Dillon building, 700 Church St., adjacent to the new
downtown
public library.
“The mission of the design center is to provide a central source advice for the design of livable and vital urban spaces in Metro Nashville,” said James Sandlin, executive director of the design center.
“It also serves as a community resource for the education and advocacy
of these issues.”
Projects already getting attention from the design center include Rolling
Mill Hill, a mix of resident and commercial development proposed for
the former Metro
General Hospital campus on Hermitage Avenue; locations for an expanded
convention center and a new symphony hall; and a redesigned Capital Boulevard.
“The design center and its staff are working with government departments and elected officials, neighborhoods and property owners, and professional groups of architects and engineers to establish a strong vision for our city,” center design director Mark Schimmenti said.
Sandlin is on loan from Vanderbilt University, which will pay his salary to direct the center, and Schimmenti is on loan from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, which will pay part of his salary, as well as that of a design assistant position.
Metro government staffers from planning, public works and the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency also work at the center, as so two to five interns.
Purcell, in his Dec.18 announcement of the center, called it a “think tank” that would “push for codes and ordinances that work” and also serve as a “bully pulpit for all citizens who care about the growth of our city.”
Nashville landscape architect Kim Hawkins is president of the nonprofit planning resource center’s 15-member board, and other officers are vice president Seab Tuck , treasurer Martin Roberts and secretary Clay Petrey Jr.
Board members include Joe Barker, Paulette Coleman, May Dean Eberling, Mike Fitts, Bert Mathews, Denise McBride, Kate Monaghan, Jeff Ockerman, Ed Owens, Calvin Richardson, Martin Roberts and Stroud Watson.
One-third of the board represents designer interests, one-third commercial real estate and one-third social interests.
“We really are taking a very multidisciplinary look at issues. We’re not just having architects in on landscape architects, but it’s really a broad base, and that’s what we’ve tried to represent in our board as well, to make sure we’re getting a kind of holistic perspective,” Hawkins said last spring.
About one-third of the center’s $500,000 annual budget will come from Metro-$100,000 of it in block grants from MDHA. Foundations will contribute a portion such as the $100,000 set-up donation from the Frist Foundation. The center also is seeking funds from the National Endowment of the Arts and other grant organizations, and a small portion of the financing will come from the local community.
Giving monumental shape to downtown's ambitions
Design center hopes to bring vision to planning efforts
Nashville Business Journal - August 23, 2002
If you took a map of St. Peters Square and placed it over a map of downtown Nashville, the Vatican would be about the same size as the Gaylord Entertainment Center, with the rest of St. Peters Square occupying the arena's back parking lot. That's 7.5 acres of some of the most memorable real estate in the world, and surprisingly it would take up very little of downtown Nashville.
The same is true for Washington D.C.
A map of the district
overlaid on Nashville with the Capitol on top of Tennessee's Capitol
would place
the Lincoln Memorial just south
of the Gaylord Entertainment
Center.
"The monumental places in our world are no bigger than that," says
Mark Schimmenti, design director for Nashville's Civic Design Center.
Schimmenti, a professor of urban design and architecture at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, says the idea behind such comparisons is not to suggest Nashville architects, planners and designers consider recreating St. Peters Square or Washington D.C. but to provoke thought on land use and raise awareness of little land is needed to make a significant impact on a city.
That focus is what the design center, at 700 Church St. in the heart of Nashville, is all about.
"We just try to get people to think of the possibilities," Schimmenti says.
Those possibilities include other downtown development ideas such as SoBro, an area just south of Broadway extending to the Cumberland River that now encompasses the Hilton Suites Hotel, Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum and the planned concert hall for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. The center also has weighed in on development in The Gulch area and new uses for the Nashville Thermal Plant site, among others.
"We basically are concerned with everything within the inner loop," says Seab Tuck, partner in Nashville architectural firm Tuck Hinton Architects and president of the civic design center's board of directors.
Tuck says he wants downtown Nashville to become the region's living room, where people from all over come downtown to see football games, watch the Predators hockey team play and eat at fine restaurants.
We want to make sure Nashville sets a good example," Tuck says.
The example is being well set by the civic design center, which has already been involved in such high profile discussions such as the possible baseball stadium relocation, Capitol Boulevard changes, courthouse site selection and even the colors for the new Shelby Street pedestrian bridge.
Tuck says the center will do everything from meeting with groups of concerned citizens to discussing design and development ideas, to preparing detailed "white papers" that carefully explain the economic and design impact of proposed projects.
Tuck says 87 master plans have been proposed for downtown Nashville since 1963. The design center has been reviewing those master plans to see if common themes can be extracted.
Tuck says one historical design theme is the redevelopment of the Cumberland River area, something well on its way to fruition, although younger Nashvillians might not notice. The banks of the Cumberland River used to be dotted with manufacturing facilities and warehouses that made the area unattractive and dirty. Although some industrial development is still in the area, the movement towards design redevelopment has been going on for years.
The Thermal Plant discussion continues that theme of cleaning up the area and making it more attractive in design and function, says Tuck.
"We don't come up with solutions," says Tuck. "We're there to
give tools to the community to help them develop projects
as best they can."