Rolling Mill Hill & the Rutledge Hill Neighborhood

Nashville Civic Design Center ROLLING MILL HILL & THE RUTLEDGE HILL NEIGHBORHOOD FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS This document was produced to help guide devel- Executive Summary 4 opment of the Metro- owned properties known as Roll- ing Mill Hill. These holdings include the site of the Study of the Site 6 former Metropolitan Hospital and the area of the historic trolley car barns. The work was produced by the Geology of the Site 8 Nashville Civic Design Center in concert with the greater Nashville community. The design staff and in- History of the Site 10 terns of the Civic Design Center during the study were: Mark M. Schimmenti, Design Director; John Development of the Site 18 Houghton, Design Assistant; and the design interns Blythe Bailey, Ted Booth, Abbie Lee Majors, and Recommendations for Development 27 Catherine Tracy. The historical research was conducted by Astrid Schoonhoven. The geological study was by Appendix 30 John Houghton. Judy Steele of the Metropolitan De- velopment and Housing Agency, Randall Hutcheson of the Metro Planning Department, and Jeff Campbell of Metro Public Works contributed significantly to the report. Questions and comments may be directed to: Nashville Civic Design Center 700 Church Street #102 Nashville, Tennessee 37203 (615) 248-4280 voice (615) 248-4282 fax [email protected] ©2002 Nashville Civic Design Center Nashville Civic Design Center Report: Rolling Mill Hill page 2 Second Avenue/Lower Broad Entertainment District Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge Proposed Gateway Bridge Cumberland River Rolling Mill Hill Rutledge Hill Neighborhood Metro Offices I-40 Children’s Theater Academy Place Footbridge Nashville Civic Design Center Report: Rolling Mill Hill page 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Howard School area and the neighborhood of Rutledge Hill. The following are the recommendations of the when considered together with Hermitage as • The area comprising the Howard School Civic Design Center for the development of the their “main street,” constitute a new urban Office Building, other metro offices and the Metro properties known as Rolling Mill Hill. This neighborhood. Development plans need to children’s theater should be incorporated into summary is followed by a report outlining the address both the city-owned property and the the neighborhood. research, community input and design analysis that Rutledge Hill neighborhood as parts of a • Development of the area should be considered led to these recommendations. whole. in both the short-term (5 years) and the long- The recommendations are governed by a main principle of the design of cities: the neighborhood and district are the fundamental building blocks of great cities. This implies that quality growth should be considered a diverse systematic endeavor rather than an isolated event. The past efforts to develop Rolling Mill Hill did not address this principle directly. Considering this, and other factors outlined in this report, the Civic Design Center recommends: • The commissioning of a team capable of realizing a strategic development plan for the area. This plan would require the urban design, economic strategies, transportation plans, and infrastructure needs to be considered as one coordinated community derived vision. • The site of the city owned property, Rolling Mill Hill, and the Rutledge Hill neighborhood should be seen as contiguous with each other along Hermitage Avenue. These two areas, Nashville Civic Design Center Report: Rolling Mill Hill page 4 term (20 years) to help ensure the building of a quality urban environment. • The city should investigate the different economic models for the build out of the property. The goal of this effort would be to balance short-term gains with the long-term quality of the new neighborhoods. • Hermitage Avenue should be treated as an urban street/boulevard and should not be designed and detailed like a highway. Plans to widen part or the entire avenue should be reconsidered. The success of the area depends on the proper design of this urban street. • The redevelopment district should be ex- panded along 4th Avenue to Lafayette. The boundaries do not reflect the natural boundaries of the neighborhood. • The historic structures of the hospital com- plex, the corner of the original building, the 19th century wing, the addition of 1931, the boiler house, the stack, and the two nurses’ buildings are of very good architectural squares should be located as neighborhood character and significance. They should be from the Rutledge Hill neighborhood should centers. considered for incorporation into the design. be enhanced. • The Academy Place footbridge should be • The car barns on the north end of the site • The planned Greenway should be incorpo- refurbished. A study should be conducted to should be reused maintaining their architec- rated into the redevelopment plan including determine steps that would help ensure safety tural character. strong ties to the interior of the neighborhood. and deter crime associated with the bridge. • The edges of the site along the river should be • Once the area has been established through • The area should be strongly linked by public public parkland and the views through the site the definition of neighborhood edges, civic transportation to the central business district. Nashville Civic Design Center Report: Rolling Mill Hill page 5 ROLLING MILL HILL AND THE RUTLEDGE HILL NEIGHBORHOOD STUDY OF THE SITE Research Public Meetings groups, twenty-one and twenty-four respectively, and the broadest spectrum of residents and business The Design Center has conducted a substantial The Design Center conducted six public owners. Again, Design Center staff canvassed the amount of historical research on Rolling Mill Hill meetings in July and August. At the first public neighborhood with meeting announcements. and the Rutledge Hill neighborhood throughout the meeting, held in early July at the Center, seventeen course of the study. Since June, historical maps, community residents and business owners discussed Analysis drawings and photographs of Rolling Mill Hill and issues and ideas related to the development of Rolling the Rutledge Hill neighborhood have been collected Mill Hill. Design Center staff canvassed the At each step of the process, the Center has and catalogued. The Center accessed historical neighborhood door-to-door with announcements to produced analytical drawings illustrating the histori- material through the Tennessee State Archives, the notify Rutledge Hill residents and business owners of cal development of Rutledge Hill, past development Metropolitan Archives, the Nashville Public Library, the meeting. proposals, and current features of the neighborhood. the Metropolitan Historical Commission, The To reach residents immediately south of A first set of drawings tracked the changing building Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, Rutledge Hill, a second public meeting took place at fabric of the community as well as the basic structure and the Metropolitan Planning Department, as well Sudekum Homes. Scheduled in conjunction with a of the more recent development proposals. These as through a general literature search. In addition to regular meeting of the residents’ association, the drawings provided a framework for introducing the the historical documents, the Design Center added public meeting attracted ten residents. At the end of site and summarized its history. During the public recent development proposals for Rolling Mill Hill to July, the Design Center organized two full-day meetings process, a number of participants raised the its resource library. workshops, on a Friday and Saturday, open to the importance of additional analytical diagrams. A The historical material and the development public. At the workshops, participants and staff second set of drawings, then, added specificity and proposals became the basis for the public meetings. translated issues and ideas to base maps, generating detail to more general neighborhood observations on A number of longtime Rutledge Hill residents who conceptual designs. The workshops were not widely issues such as traffic, topography, schools, parks, attended the public meetings also contributed to the publicized and drew small groups, seven to ten greenways, and crime. Design Center’s understanding of the project site. people, of mostly local design and development The Center completed a three-hour interview with professionals. one resident in August for an oral history of the The Design Center organized two additional neighborhood. public meetings for Rutledge Hill residents and business owners during the first week of August. Held at Metro Planning’s offices in Lindsley Hall, the afternoon and evening meetings attracted the largest Nashville Civic Design Center Report: Rolling Mill Hill page 6 Nashville Urban Design Forum roundtable discussion on the issues surrounding the development of Rolling Mill Hill. Nashville Civic Design Center Report: Rolling Mill Hill page 7 ROLLING MILL HILL AND THE RUTLEDGE HILL NEIGHBORHOOD The ring of hills in relation to the grid of Nashville, GEOLOGY OF THE SITE historic pikes, and railroad corridors. Building a site, as opposed to site planning, begins with naming the place and engaging the land. Accordingly, understanding the site geology of Rolling Mill Hill generates a series of descriptions about the place that can inform subsequent decisions about building the site. Rolling Mill Hill, situated on an escarpment above the Cumberland,

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