Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Replacing a 250-space surface parking lot, the Peabody Plaza by HASTINGS Architecture and HAWKINS Partners is a pocket park amidst an ever-densifying downtown Nashville, introducing a park and 290,000 square feet of office space with retail and restaurant opportunities poised to enliven the streetscape.

Peabody Plaza has recently been awarded a 2023 American Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture, Design, and Urban Studies.

As part of a multi-site master plan, the design strategically buried a 1,005-car parking garage five stories below grade and positioned the building along the western edge of the site to create space for a pocket park.

The 37,500-square-foot park anchors the site and, along with a promenade, establishes a pedestrian connection between SoBro and the Cumberland River Greenway.

The north edge of the park is punctuated by an 8,000-square-foot restaurant featuring patio dining that engages both the park and promenade.

Patterned with precast concrete panels, brick, Oko skin, and glass, the facade is an ever-changing reflection of the surrounding city.

The façade pattern is derived from the organization of the adjacent historic trolley barns.

The pattern erodes to all-glass corners at both the southeast and northwest corners to denote major entry locations.

The lobby frames views of the pocket park while its angular ceiling recalls the undulating topography of the Rolling Mill Hill neighborhood.

The monumental stair promotes healthy activity and is backdropped by a vertical feature wall that reinterprets the building façade.

Project: Peabody Plaza
Architects: HASTINGS Architecture, LLC.
Design Team: David A. Baile, Chuck Gannaway, William W. Hastings, Robert White, Lauren McCloud, Emilee D. Wilson, and Paul Law
Landscape Architects: HAWKINS Partners Inc.
General Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC.
Client: Eakin Partners, LLC.
Photographers: Hall + Merrick Photographers and McCaugherty McGinn Photography