Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Designed by Hastings Architecture, the Christ Presbyterian Academy Fine Arts Center is a pivotal element of a comprehensive campus-wide master plan that thoughtfully positions the new Arts Center to foster the creation of a central outdoor quad, marking a significant shift from a campus previously centered around automotive access to one that prioritizes the human scale and celebrates the school’s setting.
The Christ Presbyterian Academy Fine Arts Center project has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2023 American Architecture Awards from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Christ Presbyterian Academy is a private co-educational college-preparatory school for grades preschool through 12 situated on a 58-acre campus in Nashville, Tennessee.
Since its founding in 1982, the campus, which grew without an overarching style or aesthetic, is now united around the central quad.
The formerly disparate facades of the campus now speak in harmony with a new color palette.
Like the program it houses, the new Fine Arts Center is bright and inspired.
Brick massing wraps the building base and references existing campus scale and materiality.
An undulating corrugated metal panel, evocative of the stage curtain, sheaths the theater house and fly tower.
At the main entry, the brick mass opens up to reveal a transparent lobby capped with a wooden canopy — a welcoming gesture for students and visitors alike.
The glazing pattern – an interpretation of the Academy’s tartan pattern – introduces a contemporary vocabulary unique to this campus.
Through the transparent façade, the lobby blurs the line between indoors and out with natural materials and abundant natural light, inviting curiosity and wonder through both the grand scale of the space and its sculptural gestures.
The theatre auditorium echoes the gentle curves found in the lobby representing the creative expression fostered within the building and standing in contrast to the Arts Center’s orthogonal brick massing.
An expansive light monitor diffuses light throughout the lobby and furthers the connection between indoors and out.
The program includes a 550-seat theatre, black box theatre, makeup, and dressing rooms, a costume shop, scene shop, green room, Administrative, and Arts Department offices.
This transformation underscores a commitment to enhancing the educational environment by promoting walkability, facilitating community interaction, and leveraging the natural beauty of the surroundings.
The inclusion of the Fine Arts Center not only enriches the school’s cultural and artistic offerings but also plays a crucial role in redefining the campus’s layout and identity, making it more welcoming and connected.
Project: Christ Presbyterian Academy Fine Arts Center
Architects: Hastings Architecture Associates, LLC.
Principal in Charge: David A. Bailey
Design Team: Robert Kown, Sierra Jensen, Erik A. Lund, and Whit Self
Landscape Architects: Civil Site Design Group
General Contractor: Solomon Builders Inc.
Client: Christ Presbyterian Academy
Photographers: Hall + Merrick + McCaugherty Photographers
