Downtown Nashville will become home to the city’s tallest tower, as the YMCA of Middle Tennessee revealed plans on October 4 to build a 100,000-square-foot, 60-story residential tower at its .9-acre property on Church Street. The existing YMCA completed in 1973 will be developed and connected with the new project, while a newer 2008 building at the site will be similarly integrated.
The new tower will hit 750 feet tall, eclipsing the 1994 AT&T Building for the title of tallest in the city (and the entire state of Tennessee). The postmodern AT&T Building was designed by the local Earl Swensson Associates and frequently draws comparisons to Batman for the twin spires at its peak.
However, the usurper to its title will be a bit more modern. Renderings for the new tower, designed by the Chicago-based Goettsch Partners, show a pleated glass curtain wall that terminates at a crystalline peak backed by a flat wall of glass. The residential tower portion will reportedly hold 500 units total with a mixture of condo units and apartments.
In front of the new tower, the aforementioned 1973 YMCA building will be overhauled and gain its own pleated glass facade across the midsection, while the ground floor and top level will be wrapped in simple flat glass. The effect is akin to having that section “float” in the middle of the others, but more importantly, the move visually ties the annex to the tower behind it.
The $350 million project is being developed and overseen by Giarratana Development, with whom the YMCA currently has a non-binding letter of intent. Once the details are finalized and the project receives the necessary approvals, Giarratana will purchase the southern section of the site from the YMCA for the tower. The location is a big draw; directly across the street sits the 17-acre Nashville Yards, a sprawling office and tech campus that has already drawn in major commitments from Amazon to bring 5,000 employees to the city (and two new office towers currently under construction). Once complete, Nashville Yards is expected to hold over 1,000 residential units, more than 1,100 hotel rooms, 3.5 million square feet of office space, retail, and a 1.3-acre public park.
The 2008 building on the YMCA site will be kept open during construction as to not shut the community out from its public services. Construction on both portions is reportedly expected to begin in 2023, with work on the renovation finishing by June 2024 and the tower following by January of 2026.
