Randee Rogers Apartments

Kline Swinney Associates

This building replaces an outdated Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) training center complex, while continuing to honor the person after whom the original facility was named. During the late 1970’s Randee Rogers worked for MDHA and advocated for its residents and for racial integration. At one point she, along with her two young daughters, moved into the Preston Taylor public housing complex for several months to better understand the needs of those she served. Tragically, Ms. Rogers suffered a fatal fall in 1980 at the age of 35.

The new facility named for Randee Rogers was designed to help develop a mixed-income community without displacing any current residents of the area. All 100 of the one, two and three bedroom apartments feature market rate amenities, with 25 of the units renting at market rates, another 25 renting at “workforce” rates, and the remaining 50 reserved for subsidized rental.

The project site borders the Germantown and Buena Vista neighborhoods, five minutes walking distance from downtown Nashville to the south. The narrow lot, sandwiched between Rosa L. Parks Blvd. to the east and Delta Avenue to the west, required careful planning to accommodate the necessary number of units and parking garage, while providing considerable site amenities and ample landscaping.

The exterior facades at Randee Rogers feature red brick and darkly painted fiber cement siding to blend with and complement the industrial-chic of the surrounding neighborhood. Permanent seating, raised planter beds and concrete game tables are scattered throughout the site. Painted murals from metal walls of the original training complex were carefully photographed and these colorful, stylized images of notable nearby buildings, including the State capital, the Tennessee Tower and the Davidson County Courthouse plaza, were applied to metal panels on exterior building and retaining walls at their original location on the site and elsewhere within the development. All apartment units feature either covered grade level porches or balconies with views of the on-site plazas, the surrounding neighborhood and downtown Nashville.

Interior amenities include a large, two-story entry lobby/atrium with a first floor leasing/support office and mail facilities. An exercise room is located on the third floor and a resident’s computer room and community room are both located on the fourth floor. All four apartment levels have direct, interior access to the integral four-story parking garage via a pair of elevators and numerous stairways.