The Westin Beast Grows
Okay, first, let me get my biases clear and out of the way: I am opposed to the proposed Westin hotel on lower Broadway. That’s why I’m disappointed to read that the behemoth is clearing hurdles, and growing all the while. The plan, if you’ve missed it, is to demolish the Trail West building, and now a neighboring property, and build a very large new hotel. Why am I opposed to the hotel’s presence? A few reasons:
- It’s too big. It’s huge, as a matter of fact. I can’t even remember what it started off as, but it ballooned at some point to 375 rooms, and now they’ve bought up another property and it sits at 342 rooms. It’s nearly 20 stories tall — and from what I understand, there are accusations that the height of these 20 stories is being underrepresented in renderings shown to the public. 20 stories will utterly dwarf the buildings around it.
- It threatens to undermine the historic character of Lower Broad. Because of the aforementioned size, this hotel could easily be the last straw in the breaking of Lower Broad. Nashville has struggled to find the magic combination to preserve the historic character of Lower Broad. We can make it work, and it’s worth fighting for. Knocking down historic warehouses to put up a 20-story hotel is a bad precedent.
- It doesn’t have to be there. Downtown Nashville is not strapped for space. Look around. It could go anywhere. And yet, here we are, encroaching on the one area of downtown Nashville that retains some unique character.
I don’t think there’s much public outcry about this because I don’t think many people know about it, or realize the scale of the change. The wheels are in motion on this, folks. The Westin hotel alone won’t kill lower Broad, but it could easily die the death of a thousand papercuts.
UPDATE: Brian in the comments points out that the Trail West building will not be demolished in its entirity, a change that I missed. Here’s the City Paper on this concession:
But the developers have made one major concession – saving the Trail West building in its entirety as well as a neighboring building on Lower Broad. Originally, the plan was to shave off the back of the building and build up.
Brad Robinette, a Sage senior vice president, said the idea was to maintain the two buildings so they are still contributing to Lower Broad as a historic district. With that change, the developers reconfigured the tower’s design so that it is set back from Broadway better. The original design was an L shape; now it looks more like a T.
This is good, but not great. I don’t think it changes my opinion for the same reasons that Ann Roberts detailed in the same article:
“They have made some changes in response to the concerns that were voiced earlier,” Roberts wrote in an e-mail. “But from the preservation perspective, three National Register-eligible buildings would be demolished, and the buildings the plan retains would lose their integrity, that is, be made non-contributing, because of the massive ‘addition’ of a 19-story building…
“From a broader view, it is still too much building too close to Broadway and to Third Avenue, and it sets a dangerous precedent for that very special area,” Roberts wrote. “The project would be very welcome elsewhere, but it’s not a compatible fit for the Broadway National Register Historic District!”