Network Service Facility Restoration
Network Service Facility Restoration
Awards Category : : Small Project (25,000 sf or less)
The project team responded to a tragic event with a creative solution that is as much art as architecture.
As part of ongoing plans for revitalization of Second Avenue and reconstruction of buildings affected by the 2020 Christmas Day bombing, mayor John Cooper launched a task force to provide recommendations for setting a new vision for the three blocks of the street. The vision was to create a vibrant district for Nashville families and tourists, with today’s streetscape best practices and retaining and restoring the historic buildings.
Mayor Cooper reached out to three senior architects for a concept to bring this section of the street to life. The three developed several concepts. To activate pedestrian interest and activity this side of the street would require the installation of new street trees, new wider sidewalks, improved illumination, and vendor kiosks.
The larger challenge was how to create a pedestrian friendly environment at the base of a very tall building with no windows or other openings and no animation at the street level. In lieu of repairing and recladding the dark telecommunications building, it would be reclad with sleek metal panels with a silver-gray tone. Rather than a dark, imposing mass filling much of the block, this clean, crisp structure would have a closer relationship with the newer structures in the city. To animate the street level, a “ghost image” of the mid nineteenth century buildings across the street would be embedded in the panels using a half tone process.
The image will extend three stories high and over 250’ long.
Date of Completion: Summer 2023
Client: AT&T
General Contractor:
Consultants: Cyril Stewart (Cyril Stewart, LLC); Kem Hinton (Kem Hinton Design)
Photography Credits:
1 - Nashville. With a history dating back to the very beginning of the city, and outstanding Victorian buildings dating to the mid 19th century, it was also a key site where historic preservation started in earnest for Nashville. Photo from Archives.
2 and 3 - Aftermath of the 2020 Christmas Day bombing. Photo from submitting firm.
4 - Ponder’s original artwork of “Market Street Too” was created in 1990 and the murals ghost image is intended to reflect the original Victorian facades of the street.
5 - Early sketch concept.
6 - Our team worked with FARO® to secure the use of the company’s 3D laser scanning technology to digitally map sections of First, Second, Third and Fourth Avenues, as well as Broadway, in order to create a three-dimensional model of
downtown and to provide a virtual template from which to rebuild.
7 - 15 - Photos of the half tone “ghost image”. Photos by Ford Photographs