Earlier this spring, the Nashville Planning Department received an approval application for a parcel addressed 20 Victory Avenue, directly north of the eastern approach of the pedestrian bridge. The application, submitted by Hastings Architecture on behalf of a team of contractors, gives the public its first glimpse into the ambitious, controversial, and avant-garde plans for the new home of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.

Setting the Stage: The East Bank

Over the last few years, a collection of government entities and private developers have been collaborating on plans for what will become the East Bank neighborhood. The area, identified as the slit of land between the Cumberland River on the western edge and Interstate 24 on the east, has seen almost none of the redevelopment glitz and glamor that’s peppered the rest of the city over the past 15 years. Warehouses, light industry, parking lots, and scrap yards are the only neighbors to a lonely Nissan Stadium, standing in stark contrast to the bustling and lively downtown a few hundred yards across the river.

But today, the plans for this thin stretch of river bank couldn’t be more transformative. Anchored in the north by a planned 80-acre global headquarters for Oracle, and in the south by 150 acres of city-owned land centered around a new, state-of-the-art Titans stadium, there are dozens of new offices, hotels, apartment towers, and other developments currently coming into focus.

“TPAC is on course to climb out of its subterranean origins and into the spotlight.”

On the other side of the river, the James K. Polk building sings a more somber tune. After years of deferring maintenance on issues largely caused by the building’s experimental cantilevered floor design, the time of TPAC’s tenancy has come to end. With support from state funding, city land, and private donations, the dream of a world-class performing arts space is on track to become a reality. In many ways mirroring Nashville’s ascendancy from a regional, mid-sized city to a globally recognized destination, TPAC is on course to climb out of its subterranean origins and into the spotlight.

The Plans

The design of the 300,000 square foot new building, which was led by Copenhagen-based Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), is centered around a wide “V” shape, opening up like outstretched arms pointed across the river towards downtown. The two arms of this “V” shape are anchored by the two primary venues of the building – the larger “Grand Broadway Hall” with space for 2,600 guests, the smaller “Dance and Opera House” with space for 650. The venues sit with the stages backing up to the pedestrian bridge, fanning out towards a landscaped plaza in front of the building, and out farther into a future proposed “East Bank Park.” Sitting further at the rear of the building on top of the two main venues are the “Cabaret” and “Black Box” performing spaces – smaller, more intimate venues designed with flexibility and adaptability in mind.

Facing the riverfront and with its back against the pedestrian bridge, the space’s unique location provides creative and seamless connectivity for visitors. The main entrance will be on the lower level at the front of the building, inviting guests into an open, towering atrium that vanishes back and upwards to the rear of the building. Guests may also enter via an upper level entrance at the rear of the building on the pedestrian bridge, bringing them to an expansive, four-story high vista overlooking the lower lobby below and the riverfront beyond the front glass wall. Wide, shallow staircases on either side of the building’s exterior will round out the building’s accessibility, offering additional options for getting around or exploring the space.

These four venues and the central atrium form the core of the building, but the plans also call out items such as a donor lounge, a rehearsal space with transparent windows for patrons to watch through, pockets of outdoor spaces for live performances or private events, a top-floor outdoor vista with views of downtown, spaces for dining and drinks, and many others. All together, BIG’s design is full of small, delightful details that paint the picture of a space capable of delivering an excellent experience to visitors, while maintaining flexibility for future needs. 

Access

As I’ve discussed these plans with friends over the last few weeks, one of the most frequently asked questions is “where will I park?” In a city as car-centric as Nashville, parking is the cart before the horse of any great design. Before they were eliminated in the city’s urban areas in 2022, Nashville’s parking minimums determined how much on-site parking businesses needed based on the size and use of the space. With those now gone, and in keeping with Bjarke Ingels’ Scandinavian background, TPAC’s new design minimizes parking access and availability in favor of transport options such as walking, biking, or public transit.

The building’s plans do include a lower-level garage, but with only 160 spaces against thousands of seats in the theater, I wouldn’t bet on much or any of this being available to the public. Nissan Stadium Lot R, behind the building on the other side of the pedestrian bridge, will seemingly be available for use by TPAC patrons, but the lot’s days are likely numbered as the East Bank continues to develop.

While this is an inconvenient adjustment for many long-time TPAC patrons, the de-emphasizing of vehicular access at the site is critical in creating the seamless, inviting flow intended for the space. With parking and loading access confined entirely to the rear of the building beneath the bridge, guests can enjoy nearby features like the riverfront, green spaces, or restaurants before navigating towards the theater in a park-like setting.

Preliminary plans for the East Bank’s accessibility put TPAC steps away from both a riverfront greenway and a transit priority corridor, allowing for easy access via bicycle or transit. Additionally, the pedestrian bridge is an obvious connection to origins and destinations on the downtown side of the river. If none of these options suit you, though, there will likely be several paid parking garages in the immediate area as hotels, apartments, and offices fill out the neighborhood, complementing existing parking options on the other side of the river.

Style & Design

It doesn’t take more than a cursory glance at the project’s plans to see that this building’s architectural style is unlike anything currently standing in Nashville. In the traditional southern US doctrine of “survival on Greek revival,” many peoples’ expectations of their cultural or institutional spaces have narrowed down to pilasters, colonnade porches, pediments, and rows of columns, all wrapped up in a symmetrical, limestone package. BIG’s design is a departure from everything Nashvillians are accustomed to – instead of leaning on the weight of tradition and the legitimacy of the conventional, it prioritizes seamless function, elegant form, and boldness. It’s a departure from the norm of inoffensive mass appeal that guided the design of so many of our tastefully bland public spaces; it’s daring to be a design that some people just won’t like.

The centerpiece of the building’s statement to the public is an enveloping curtain of almost a thousand anodized aluminum tubes. These tubes, while generally vertically oriented, play with their linear rotation to create moments of openness and transparency. A secondary effect of the curtain, which will be especially visible from the riverfront side, is to give the viewer the impression of a billowing curtain across a giant stage.

A criticism that I’ve heard repeated a few times since the designs were released is that it’s too bland, too colorless, or even incomplete looking. While people may have their own reasons for feeling this way, I believe that much of this is due to the bias of how architectural renders are presented. Most renders, especially the ones used in the media, are birds’ eye views of the project, meant to give a viewer a complete impression of both the design and the neighborhood context. But this is completely detached from how we personally experience these spaces. 

Looking at two renderings for comparison, the first one shows the project front-on from a high elevation. The majority of the space taken up by the building’s image is the roof, which is primarily devoted to mechanical and structural elements. Beyond that, we’re given a vague sense of the building’s size, that it will be in a neighborhood, and it will have connections to roads we recognize going in directions we can intuit. While this is useful, it falls short of describing how the building will make us feel and how we’ll interact with it on a more human scale. 

The second rendering shows the building across the street, looking toward the entrance plaza at eye level. Here, viewers can easily imagine what it would be like to interact with this building. You can place yourself standing where this image is projected, admiring the view of the theater, or perhaps planning your route for crossing the street and going inside. You can take in the light reflecting off of the aluminum facade, or get a glimpse of activity in the main atrium from here. While this is certainly less functional than the previous rendering, this informs the relationship between the space and the humans who will occupy it.

The Wait

Construction timelines for the project are tentative, but current plans are to begin site work in early 2027 and finish construction by 2030. This project is intertwined with numerous externalities; items like the design of the East Bank Boulevard, relocating and upgrading utilities, or redesigning the eastern approach of the pedestrian bridge could snag and cause delays. 

While I’m not resoundingly confident that this venue will be open to the public and in use by 2030, I firmly believe that it will be an excellent space, loved by the community, and will serve as a top-tier home for the performing arts for generations to come.

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Coleman Gaines

Coleman Gaines is a mechanical engineer and Nashville native. He actively follows real estate and development news around Nashville, and spends his free time advocating for better urban planning and walkability. He has previously guest written for City Now Next.

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