The world of ballet is one shielded from the public eye for all but the 1% seen during performance. The curtain between the audience and dancer, while open for those select minutes, is a degree of separation which limits the viewer’s appreciation for the craft of the art form because they are not privy to the process. Before the performance, there are countless hours of preparation which go unnoticed by the public. In this way, the gesture of ballet is one of sequestration rather than invitation. The mission of a ballet school intended to elevate and bring awareness to the beauty in the preparation must be to pull back the curtain between the art form and the community, between the process and the performance, and finally, between the dancer and the audience.
This charge is accomplished in multiple ways across the project, the most compelling being a two-story glass jewel box that hangs gracefully over a public plaza giving valuable land back to the city. Through its face, the extensive preparation that goes into every move of a performance is on display. Dancers’ silhouettes glide along the facade, unveiling the devotion formerly unseen by the public. Four spans of perforated chromatized steel panels drift across the same facade, transforming both interior and exterior spaces and reflecting the vivid colors of the nearby neon signs ornamenting Nashville’s Broadway. The steel curtains isolate important views and, under special circumstances, retreat from the facade altogether, spanning across the pedestrian walkway. The location for the Nashville ballet places it amongst the honky-tonk culture of Broadway, the prestige of the adjacent Nashville Symphony, and directly across a pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland river from the future Tennessee Performing Arts Center (T-PAC).
In their extended position, the curtains create a visual linkage through these three environments, effectively transforming the space between them into a performing arts conglomerate. In combination with the shaded plaza, the curtains become backdrops for public exhibitions on the walkway and more intimate productions on the terrace. Above all, pulling back the curtains directs focus to the interior of the jewel box, working to elevate the process and reveal the rigor behind the poise.
Both the full and focused studios situated on the south end of the jewel box allow for maximum flexibility. They are strategically positioned to offer a range of space orientation, ceiling heights, lighting conditions, and view sheds. From these studios, dancers can look directly across the pedestrian walkway to the Nashville Symphony where their practice culminates into performances.
In order to achieve the more than 100 ft cantilever which gives a public plaza back to the city, the weight of the jewel box is transferred through a truss network to the fly-tower of the performance studio. Here the strength of the steel is celebrated as both the structural and programmatic core of the project. The fly-tower is a component of the structural support belt of cross bracing members. These extend down to the grounded portion of the building hanging the studios above the plaza.
Perhaps even more important than creating views into the interior and out to the exterior was to develop a sense of transparency throughout the project so that younger students are able to observe more accomplished dancers regardless of where in the school they are, creating a further sense of unity and connectivity within. Private spaces remain private and studios are able to seclude when necessary but the layer of separation is removed in both interior and exterior.
The recyclable nature of steel lends itself nicely to sustainable design, but this project also hosts several other functions to increase sustainability while elevating ballet. First and foremost, the extensive cantilever provides over 18,000 sqft of shaded plaza, shielded from Nashville’s heatwaves, in a city in desperate need of public space. This community zone could be used as an expansion of the nearby parks, hosting various performances, farmer’s markets, and fairs in a central yet temperate location. The structural and programmatic support is situated on the bottom level with entries targeting the differing demographics present. The fly-tower plays a pivotal role in both structure and sustainability. With an opening at the peak, the fly-tower becomes the building’s lungs, pulling hot air up and out, keeping dancers and guests cool. Over 75% of the program receives sufficient natural light for daytime use through the exterior glazing and the central atrium, saving electricity, in addition to shaping space, the rolling chromatized steel curtians supply relief when the sun becomes too harsh, reducing both solar heat gain and sun glare within the southern and western most faces.
Mon 01/08/2024 - Mon 04/01/2024
118 4th Ave N // Nashville // TN
36°09’41”N 86°46’30”W
Samuel Curry // Rebekah Lamberth
The Nashville Ballet
Steel Design Competition
RGB 150, 0, 24