The West End is Nashville's midtown area where a secondary cluster of businesses, hotels, and high density residential has located.  Near the CBD and downtown area, the West End also include Vanderbilt University (see here), Centennial Park which has the Parthenon impostor, lots of young people and new investment.  Kudos once again to glutmax for showing me around Nash-vegas.

 

 

1. We'll just get this out of the way early...

 

2.

 

3.

 

4. Food vendors in parks is a great idea...

 

5.

 

6. On the edge of campus now at the medical building cluster...

 

7. Patio on the Children's Hospital where we got some free soda (score).

 

8. A chicken finger co-op...for some reason I felt compelled to take this picture.

 

9. Trendy neighborhood business district that forms the western edge to the Belmont neighborhood.

 

10.

 

11.

 

12.

 

13. Eh, infill.

 

14. Cute church along West End Avenue.

 

15. Very average infill along West End Avenue in, you guessed it, Nashville's West End neighborhood.

 

16. These signs are outside of every live music establishment...very convenient.

 

17. West End residential infill.

 

18. Love the sign and the building.

 

19. Hotel Indigo...the hotel where I wanted to stay until their rates jumped $30/night right before I made my booking. Courtyard by Mariott a few blocks away worked instead.

 

20. Now onto the surprising Germantown...it's a neighborhood in transition, but is definitely more there than it is not.

 

21. Take that Columbus.

 

22. Infill.

 

23. An old brewery in an old German neighborhood.

 

24. The Nashville Farmers Market dates back to the 1800s, but this structure was built back in the 1950s. Since then the market has been surrounded by Nashville's Bicentennial Park and is a great market for nearby residents and suburbanites alike (plenty of free parking).

 

25.

 

26.

 

27.

 

28. Great restoration project...from factory to trendy urban living spaces...obviously there is a pool nearby.

 

29. More Germantown...love this building that is perfectly situated on a quaint street corner.

 

30.

 

31. Not great infill.

 

32. Nice scale, bad architecture, big truck.

 

33. Not sure what I think about this one, but I'm leaning towards the negative.

 

34. More infill in German...great proximity to downtown as seen in the distance.

 

35.

 

36. Great little coffee shop here...perfect place to pick up the weekly liberal rag and enjoy some bohemia conversation.

Yup.

hehe, I stayed at Hotel Indigo when I was there 2 months ago.  It was just ok, but my room was unbelievably large.  Uncomfortably large.  ha. 

33 looks like a good reuse of an old firehouse.

The times I've been in Nashville were like yours -- eh, ooo, eh, gasp. I like most of the infill there, and I disagree with some of your assessments -- only because I believe that many will grow overtime with character and the 'newness' will wear off. I've seen some tacky and downright awful infill in the city that looks cheap and dated in a few years...

 

^I liked this development because I think in 20 years, this will stand out as one of the more distinct development projects in the area. I am not a huge fan of the corner attachment, but it is better than a generic brick corner. I'm not for sure what else would have worked right there.

 

^ Is this west of downtown in the Gulch? There was a place that looked similar to this and was partially gutted two years ago that I explored. Unfortunately, it wasn't abandoned... and we found that out soon enough! Fun stories with that trip.

 

^ Not sure what is terrible about this, outside of the larger-than-usual house to the right. I think it is okay, but I'm not expecting a ton of detail in any new developments.

 

^ I've always like this...

 

^ The corner street name embeds are a nice touch...

 

Good photos Randy, I miss me some chicken fingers and Nashville...

Great photos!

 

I agree with Sherman Cahal - I'm not really sure what's so negative about some of the infill projects posted. I think they're pretty good overall. In particular, those four craftsman style houses are a reasonably accurate representation (minus a few slightly busy rooflines) of one of the more relevant vernacular architecture styles in the American South.

Wow, I'm impressed.  Go Nashville!

Oh, that Parthenon.

I agree with Sherman Cahal - I'm not really sure what's so negative about some of the infill projects posted. I think they're pretty good overall. In particular, those four craftsman style houses are a reasonably accurate representation (minus a few slightly busy rooflines) of one of the more relevant vernacular architecture styles in the American South.

 

I was a little pissy when I posted this and it made my general dislike for new construction even worse.  The scale for many of the infill projects work, but the details and design is lacking imo.  Plus the attempt to copy the past didn't really work in many cases seen here from my perspective.

^ Is this west of downtown in the Gulch? There was a place that looked similar to this and was partially gutted two years ago that I explored. Unfortunately, it wasn't abandoned... and we found that out soon enough! Fun stories with that trip.

 

No that's along 8th Avenue in the Germantown area.  It's an old factory that was redeveloped into condos over a couple phases.  Here is its location:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=36.178519,-86.792936&spn=0.0032,0.00751&t=h&z=18

Excellent photos!  Not a city I see much of on these internets

Oh, that Parthenon.

 

This one is made of concrete.

I like more than I dislike. Germantown looks awfully sweet, and Nashville has an advantage with its longer growing season to create lush landscaping.

 

33 looks like a good reuse of an old firehouse.

 

They do need to do something different with that garage door, though!

I was completely underwhelmed by Nashvile when I was there in July.  I liked some of their narrow streets downtown and I applaud them for finding their 'Music City' niche, but the West End was terrible, Germantown was just ok, Centennial Park was terrible in most places (although beautiful around their main lake) and the entire city north of the Cumberland River felt like you were in some soutern shanty town.  Not to mention all the raping of hillsides that is going on in the southern burbs.  Reminded me of Green Twshp in Cincy but worse. 

 

Sorry, but Nashville is Trashville in my book.   

^Why don't you tell us how you really feel?  :laugh: