Chief Nashville Cats Williamson County bills itself as the fastest growing county in Tennessee, and one of the fastest in the nation. I counted two buildings underway just in Cool Springs, the office park for the Tennessee convention last week. After hearing Seab Tuck, FAIA, describe his ideas for a new project, a huge and hungry group walked over the Tuck-Hinton project, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville's downtown. The bus engines had barely cooled from the trip when almost 250 Tennessee architects gathered in congress in historic Franklin, ate yummy chicken, and honored each other's work. Among the winners were a community building, a new science center for a private school, and a small Unitarian church.
Architects can make a difference.
Earl Swensson, FAIA, who maintains one the largest architectural practices in Nashville, interviewed me as part of the program, and he had done his homework. It's not the program that I refer to, however. This man has an inquisitive mind, optimistic spirit, and chutzpah. In conversation, which maintained a high tone, his own interests inevitably came to the fore. His own home, which is about fifteen years old, makes a strong contemporary statement on the Harpeth Ridge, high above Williamson County.