3 min read January 2024 — Nick Dryden, principal of Dryden Architecture + Design, sat down with Invest: to discuss striking a balance between historic preservation and contemporary design, exciting projects in the firm’s pipeline and a look at what is next for Nashville as it continues to grow.
What key milestones and significant projects have defined the past year for the firm?
Recent exciting projects include Ashwood on 12th Avenue South, which is a mixed-use office and retail development that is about 150,000 square feet. We have been active in this particular neighborhood for years now. Down on the other end of the street is our project with Metro Parks’ Sevier Park, which involves several buildings, one being the original mansion residence that the Metro Historic Commission’s office is located in. Both projects are polar opposites, but both have been a lot of fun. We are also very excited about renovating and restoring the historic arcade downtown, an early 1900s retail project based on an Italian arcade. Across the street from that, we did the Noelle Hotel, which started the renaissance of boutique hotels here. We were involved in all aspects of that project, from architecture, to interior design, to branding. There is great range and diversity in the breadth of our work, with so many interesting historic landmark assets in Nashville.
How do you seek collaboration with local artists to enhance your projects?
It’s the result of having a lot of friends who are artists or creatives and finding opportunities to fold them into projects. The Noelle Hotel was the most extreme version of that since we collaborated with over 50 local Nashville creative partners. Many decisions made on who, how many, and how frequently to include artists in that process were approached by breaking the assignment into multiple smaller projects. The features of that hotel include a coffee shop, gift store, rooftop bar, full-service restaurant, hidden bar, and unique amenities on each floor. These micro-projects created a narrative for the hotel throughout the project, and as we got specific about the visual narrative, our partners were able to help us fulfill our desire to create unique experiences for guests.
How do you balance the need for contemporary design and historic preservation in your projects?
Many of the great buildings are disappearing. That is one reason we are drawn to a lot of adaptive reuse projects. I have lived in Nashville for almost 30 years, and I have seen a lot of change. When you start to see Nashville’s historic fabric disappear, you get concerned about us losing our identity. There is a healthy balance in that. I do not consider myself a preservationist, but more of a modernist. I have come to realize the importance of those two things coexisting successfully. There is a way to balance historic architecture and development with more contemporary and modern development. The best examples are in Europe. They have such progressive ideas regarding the execution of architecture, and much of their success is that changes are being made with the context of ancient and historic architecture. We do not have that in America, as we are still very young. Buildings that are 200 or 300 years old are not quite the ancient history existing in other places in the world.
How do you observe the changing landscape of the architecture and design industry in Middle Tennessee?
More outside and global influences are coming into our design world, primarily in the commercial development realm. I believe this is a good thing. Having some outside influence has been positive, but it is important to balance that with the context, history and soul of Nashville. It requires a skilled designer to be willing to invest in Nashville’s historic narrative. No matter where you are working in the world, you have to understand the context of that place.
Physically, the area in which we are seeing the most change is the real estate market. This has been bad for the most part because the real estate market has been so strong here that it has given people the license to build just about anything, and just about anything will sell. This is a real mark on our neighborhoods. Hopefully, with the economy adjusting and correcting itself, we will see less of that and people will understand that there is more value in contextual design rather than throwing up houses that look like they were built in Minecraft.
Survey: How have market changes affected your organization?
We benefit from being in a very robust economy here in Nashville, but we are not completely immune from market challenges. With interest rates and lending constraints, we are definitely seeing projects either being put on hold or canceled. Development is cautious, which affects us directly. We are generally some of the first people involved in projects, so we are looking to the future a bit before the economy has an impact on our work and have benefited from this. Our current projects started two or more years ago before many economic changes happened. Now that we are catching up with that, we are definitely beginning to see the impacts on our pipeline projects and planning accordingly.
What is your near-term outlook?
It’s strong. We benefit from working in both the residential and commercial worlds, so we see both sides and have quite the diversity in projects and clients. This gives us a lot of access to many perspectives on the market. There is a bit of correction going on right now in the market, and I do not have any concern whatsoever. We are in a great place. As Nashville continues to grow, we will embrace more sustainable practices. The increase in traffic congestion must prompt conversations about mass transit to sustain the growth happening here.
For more information, visit:
