Architectural Bad Calls #1
(Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the condominium)
Nashville, Tennessee is revealing itself to have an unusually high propensity toward comitting architectural hare kare. Everywhere you turn they are knocking down some of the last remaining 100-plus year old structures to replace them with nice new buildings. The latest in this continuing series of disapointments is the church across the street from my house, on South Douglas Ave. The congregation is partly to blame, for they decided to put it on the market. The community rallies, in its defense, but the battle-cry of the Nashville preservationist is about the equivalent of a barely audible whimper. I’m not saying I’m above criticism. I received the xeroxed pamphlet under my door. I knew where the meeting was, and at what time to “Save the Church”. Call me pesimistic, call me what you will, I just didnt want to waste a perfectly good Tuesday night, when I knew with complete conviction what the outcome would be, not matter how outraged I was. Money always prevails when it goes up against outrage. Look at it this way, which would YOU prefer?
There are very few buildings as old as this church remaining in Nashville. This city seems to have little to no interest in preserving them. This is something that sets Nashville apart from some of its similarly-sized neighbors. It will always be tainted by a slightly off-kilter redneck contingency, devoted to bigger and uglier developments, and the money to procure larger S.U.V.s.
Most of the time, I can embrace the good things about Nashville, and sort of turn a blind eye to the rest. But it’s hard, when it’s right across the street.