Nashville Tennessee To Join Super Tall Club

The American city of Nashville, famed for its Country and Western music industry could be about to join the thousand footer club if a new scheme called the Signature Tower goes ahead.

Developed by Tony Giarratana, the tower will have 70 floors with the top penthouse suite being built at a height of 252 metre / 829 feet. It however continues well above this level topping out in a 322 metre / 1057 foot tall spire that will make it the tallest building in the United States outside New York and Chicago. The bottom floors will be occupied by the anchor tenant, Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group, their first project in Nashville.

Over the past year the plans have been gradually refined until they have reached the point where they hark back to the romantic American Dream architecture of the Depression era that still has powerful meaning for Americans.

At the heart of the design by architects Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart Associates is the idea that "they don't make them like this any more". The building will have a strong art deco look right down to the distinctive patterning and motifs over the entrances at ground level that suggest something King Kong would be happy to climb with Fay Wray.

This art deco look continues all the way up the building which is stepped back more and more nearer the top before culminating in a purely decorative majestic spire with a streamlined but faceted look that expresses the old school modernity of the roaring twenties.

The structure of the tower has a central concrete core for support with more concrete outriggers and columns outside the core that will give it additional strength whilst allowing uninterrupted views with large glass windows from inside the tower thanks to the complete lack of perimeter frames. The corners of the building provide each apartment with balconies and with the irregular shape reduce the wind levels that occupants would experience when enjoying outside views.

The extreme height of the skyscraper doesn't come from an overwhelming desire of the developer to build tall. The perimeter was gradually reduced in size as design revisions occured with extra floors added to make up for the loss in floor-space. These higher floors also offer better views so can make more money showing explicitly the economic advantages to building a tall apartment building.

One of the challenges that engineers will have to overcome is one that has troubled skyscraper builders since the 1920s - how to erect the spire. This part of the construction is still in the planning phase but the problem is derived from the lack of cranes tall enough to raise it meaning it may have to be erected from inside the tower up as done when the Chrysler Building was built. .

A damper will also have to be erected inside the building to reduce the sway in higher winds by 15-20% to make it more comfortable for penthouse occupants who could otherwise run the risk of motion sickness and overflowing toilets in bad weather conditions - not the sort of thing you expect from a multi-million dollar condo.

The Signature Tower has already met with a level of success from potential buyers eager to live in the glamour looking building. They have rapidly reserved 190 of the 400 apartments it will contain even though the sales office for it is due to open in January 2007.

Ground breaking on the scheme is expected to begin in January 2007, this will involve digging and blasting through bedrock with dynamite a 33 metre deep that will house the basement levels for car parking. Once excavation is finished construction proper is scheduled for June 2007 with a completion date for the entire tower of sometime in 2009.