News
By Christine Kreyling
Ever since the Nashville Sounds first proposed a downtown ballpark as the centerpiece for a mixed-use development on the former site of the thermal trash-burning plant, the questions have focused on economics. The subsequent addition of Baltimore-based Struever Bros. (urban infill experts the city has also tapped to redevelop part of Rolling Mill Hill) hasn't allayed the queries. Will the ballpark deliver the promised wallop to the financial fortunes of the central city? Are Mayor Bill Purcell and his financial stalker, David Manning, playing too hard to get with the development team? On the other hand, why should Metro sell the 11-acre site for $1 million—as the developers propose—when the city values the land at $10 million? Is the Sounds/Struever request that the Metro Development and Housing Agency float $24.5 million in bonds to assist with the construction of the stadium too risky for taxpayers?
Questionable Game Plan: Is the current plan for the ballpark/mixed-used development being driven strictly by the numbers, instead of by how well the plan fits the site? Photo: Eric England
The financial repercussions were also debated when Sounds/Struever announced in June their intention to grow the scope of the project from $80 million to $230 million, with 618 residential units—up from 225—as well as 40,000 square feet of retail and 216,000 square feet of office space. Some fear that the increase in dwelling units could have a negative impact on the viability of housing proposed for Rolling Mill Hill. Marketers of existing downtown office space, who have struggled with high vacancy rates for years, are crying foul, claiming that the city had promised to provide no incentives for new multi-tenant buildings. Cynics see the tripling of the program as a "bait and switch." Sounds/Struever proposed a development of lower density to the Metro Council task force that was exploring competing development options for the site. Then, once the ballpark/mixed-use concept got the nod from the Metro Council and mayor, the developers grew the plan to what they wanted to do all along. "You have to ask if the task force would have selected this current and far larger proposal," says one skeptic.
The super-sized program for the project—and the revised site plan—have also engendered questions about how the project will relate to the surrounding physical context, most importantly, to the Cumberland River. To air these urban design issues, the Nashville Civic Design Center is staging a public workshop Aug. 25, from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m. at the downtown public library. The workshop will feature a presentation by the Struever team and do something that has been sorely lacking in the development process so far: find out what Nashville citizens have to say.
The orientation of the ballpark is one issue for consideration. In the original plan, the ballpark opened out toward the river, with structures flanking the first- and third-base sides. The current plan, however, shows a ballpark oriented to structures lining the Gateway Bridge. A building along First Avenue South features three floors of residential integrated into the first-base side of the grandstand. Also included are two buildings that flank Gateway Boulevard: one along the right field side of the stadium with eight floors of residential over below-grade parking, and a taller structure at the apex of center field with 12 floors of residential over parking.
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In such a plan, therefore, the ballpark has a more ambivalent relationship to the river because only half of the bleachers face the Cumberland. And a 12-story tower that visually overlaps the Gateway Bridge could muddle one of downtown's most dramatic profiles. Alex Washburn of the New York firm of W Architecture, who is crafting the site plan for Sounds/Struever, explains that the orientation of the stadium is tentative. "Until we make engineering tests of the substructure of the site—for example, how much limestone there is and where it is—we won't really know the best orientation for the ballpark. That's also true for how much below-grade parking we can build and where we can build it."
The dimensions of the public greenspace along the Cumberland are also an open question. Even before the thermal site was cleared in 2004, citizens who participated in The Plan of Nashville planning workshops suggested that a park on the site would provide a much needed amenity for the SoBro district, which is conspicuously lacking in green space.
Shain Dennison, director of greenways for Metro Parks, says she hopes that the greenway will be "not just a sidewalk with a little grass beside it, but have trees and landscaping and be more expansive." This is especially important because of the nature of the rest of the greenway along the west bank. "The historic buildings on Rolling Mill Hill constrict the greenway there. Rolling Mill will have a public plaza for an overlook, but it will be paved. And the downtown greenway connector to the north of Riverfront Park is just a trail because of Gay Street. So the greenway by the ballpark should be real park land to vary the experience along the river."
Washburn vows that in his site plan "the green will be as ample as possible. We're working to make a ballpark with the emphasis on 'park.' Possibly weaving it into the outfield would be a good combination. The main issue here is the railroad tracks. We have to figure out how to make an advantage out of a constraint."
The preservation of sightlines to the river has also emerged as a concern with the expanded plan. Because the topography of SoBro rises from bottomland along the river to higher ground to the south and west, establishing limits of scale to preserve the views of river and downtown skyline would enhance the entire district's development potential. Robert Cheatham, a 20-year resident of Rutledge Hill, says he fears that the height of the new buildings surrounding the ballpark "will make a wall around the site. When thermal came down, we finally got to see the river. Now we fear we're going to lose it, that a river view will be only for those who live by the ballpark."
Given the significant differences between the original and current proposals for the ballpark/mixed-use development, an obvious question is whether the site plan is being driven strictly by the numbers, rather than by a larger vision for the site's relationship to the surrounding context. Not so, says Washburn, who cut his teeth on urban design as Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's point person for the resurrection of Penn Station in New York's U.S. Post Office. "We're looking forward to the workshop, because there's so much we can learn by integrating the community into the design process. We want to use the workshop to find out which of the many variables are the most important to the public, how to arrange and shape the building program to accomplish the higher urban goals for which there is a consensus among the public. We truly want to build on the energy of the ballpark—that's why we're not ringing it with parking—to make the site a social center all the time, not just when there are games."
"The one thing I regret about this whole process," adds Bill Struever, CEO of Struever Bros., "is that we didn't push earlier for more public involvement in the design and development process. But I have to emphasize that we're in the very preliminary stages of the master plan. We've been dealing with the program based on the economic context that the city has set for us. Now we're eager to hear—and listen carefully—to what the citizens of Nashville really care about."
There's one question, however, that no public workshop can answer. Ballpark boosters point out that the original goal was to have a new stadium ready for the 2006 season. Now, because of lengthy negotiations with the city, they say there's some danger that the 2007 season could be missed. "The real question," says one supporter of the project, "is whether Mayor Purcell wants to do a deal, any deal, for a ballpark at all."