You’ve probably heard already or seen the City Paper story: the Westin hotel on Lower Broadway is a “go.”

The Metro Council last night approved, on the second of three required votes, an Arkansas developer’s proposal to build a 201-foot, $105 million Westin hotel and condominium tower to sit along Lower Broad between Second and Third Avenues downtown — but not without a premonition of some stormy waters ahead.

(Maybe you even saw my brief gal-on-the-street interview on the news, but if you didn’t, count yourself lucky: I looked terrible.)

I thought this quote was interesting:

Local preservationists and neighborhood activists made a strong showing against the hotel last night, saying the tower would denigrate the historic integrity of Lower Broad, filling one block with a “big, beautiful, new building that [one] could see in any other area of the country,” as one put it.

Makes it sound like beautiful is bad, which is just silly, sloppy wording. Of course beautiful is good. But whose beautiful are we talking about? If the only definition of beautiful is gleaming, towering, contemporary high-rise architecture, that’s a problem. Because that’s not what the historic architecture looked like, and to many of us, antique brick and stone with decades or even centuries of wear and tear on them are just as beautiful, or even more so, depending on context. The Trail West building and its neighbors are not beautiful to many people in the condition they’re in today, of course; they need careful restoration to remove the materials that hide the original design and beauty of the architecture, and to restore the materials that remain. But those buildings could be beautiful. And you know, new, taller architecture mixed in with the antique materials could really be done tastefully. So much depends on how it’s executed.

What are your thoughts, readers? Happy or upset with the outcome of last night’s meeting? Excited or dismayed about the prospect of the hotel? Add your thoughts in the comments.

It seems that the green light for lower Broad’s proposed Westin is fueling the fire on downtown hotel development. Rex reports today that Marriott Corporation’s CEO, Bill Marriott, Jr., was in town recently checking out plans for the new convention center. No doubt he wants Marriott to have a hand in any convention center-related hotel development, too.
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The Westin Hotel project got a green light from the Metro Planning Commission yesterday. We’ve talked about the Westin project extensively here, and I’ve made no secret that I am opposed to the idea.

But, it’s good to see that I’m not the only one, and that if the project does go through, it will at least be held to some semblance of community scrutiny.

The project goes to the Metro Council for approval next.

Sounds like there was a sweet protest at Hunters Lane yesterday.

I didn’t protest like this in high school, but I’d like to now.

What would you protest in Nashville?

(If you need ideas, check out C Wage’s post about the Westin.)

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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!”

According to today’s Tennessean:

Marriott smoking ban may be followed by other hotels

18 Nashville-area sites affected as chains sour on tobacco-friendly rooms

Marriott International’s move to make all of its 2,300 properties in the United States and Canada smoke-free by Oct. 15 probably will be followed by more hotel chains, those in the industry predict.

About 18 hotels in the Nashville area are affected by the move, because Marriott owns a variety of brands, including Courtyard, SpringHill Suites, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Fairfield Inn and TownePlace Suites.

It’s the largest chain in the nation to adopt a smoke-free policy, and it extends to all its rooms, restaurants and bars.

Westin Hotels and Resorts, which is planning a hotel in downtown Nashville, made a similar move for Westin-branded hotels earlier this year.

As a dedicated smoker and traveler on business, I have mixed emotions on this.

Just this week I was traveling in Alabama and requested a smoking room where I was staying. I’ll admit the smell was not exactly ideal, but the convenience of not having to get dressed and walk outside to smoke was worth a little stink in my opinion.

As much as I would like to, I can’t fault a business for not catering to smokers if it isn’t profitable. The social climate for smokers has changed greatly over the last 5 years and I can’t help but wonder how much more it is going to change over the next 5. My guess is smokers are going to get the shaft more and more.

Either way, they will have to pry my Pall Malls from my cold dead hands.

The Westin Hotel was approved 7-2 by a city panel. Read the news HERE. Good stuff!

I’m anxious to see the result of this meeting today. The development in downtown, especially Lower Broad and SoBro, always has my interest. While I know some folks think that Lower Broad is kind of a dead end in our town… I think that, while it will always remain mostly honktytonks, there will be vibrant change in the faces you see there daily. I don’t know if a 20 story hotel fits in just yet… but it could. Right?