When national developer Portman Holdings partnered with Creed Investment Company to redevelop the site of a once-famous recording studio, Gresham Smith set about designing the Moore Building—an amenity-rich, multiuse office tower that pays homage to the site’s musical heritage. Named after Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley’s former guitarist, the Moore Building resides in Nashville’s vibrant Midtown district—one of the city’s most walkable and bikeable communities—on the historic site of Moore’s studio. This location offered the perfect canvas for storytelling throughout the design. With a footprint of 226,000 square feet across 17 stories, the overarching goal was to embrace the past while looking to the future, prioritizing the user experience.
The project symbolizes a journey of determination and perseverance on behalf of the design team. Despite facing an unexpected delay just a day before groundbreaking, the multimarket effort across multiple Gresham Smith offices resumed seamlessly once the project could proceed, ensuring its successful completion.
Architectural Innovation
Distinguishing itself in the Nashville market, the Moore Building boasts unique design features. The ground floor, activated by 8,500 square feet of retail, features an extended lobby with one of the city’s first porte-cochere environments. Ascending to the 8th floor reveals a striking sky lobby that extends into a common area.
Taking cues from the 1970s and the historic studio, the interiors incorporate subtle musical references and wood accents in a modern yet refined workplace setting. The Class-A office tower also comprises uninterrupted office floors that allow for an open, energetic work environment. A highlight of the building is its 11,000-square-foot amenity deck, accessible from the sky lobby, offering panoramic views of Midtown and the Vanderbilt University campus.
“We introduced a sky lobby atop the parking structure and a two-story carve-out of the tower to create scale and outdoor space. This allowed the development of a very generous hospitality space unique to office development in Nashville.”
—Jeff Kuhnhenn, Director of Architectural Design
Rising to the Occasion
While the building’s innovative features contribute significantly to its architectural distinction, the project presented some notable design challenges. “We were very concerned about how this large building would fit into the transitioning scale of the neighborhood,” notes Jeff Kuhnhenn, architect and director of architectural design at Gresham Smith. “The area features a mix of one-and-half-story converted residential bungalows and brand-new 20-story multifamily high-rises. The size of the office building floor plate often results in large, monolithic forms—something we felt might work against the scale and charm of the neighborhood. This was the motivation for the collage-like approach to the massing and facade texture.”
The small site also presented the design team with another formidable challenge. “We had to get creative about how we established a sense of arrival and provided a meaningful amenity space, even though there was very little room to offset the tower to support outdoor space,” explains Kuhnhenn. “To solve this, we introduced a sky lobby atop the parking structure and a two-story carve-out of the tower to create scale and outdoor space. This allowed the development of a very generous hospitality space unique to office development in Nashville.”
Unexpected Elements
The design team meticulously selected materials that harmonized with the site’s context and aesthetic while meeting the demand for a glass exterior sought by office tenants. The building incorporates unexpected elements, such as a luxury motor court, an offset core for layout flexibility, and interoperable glass doors on each floor connecting indoor and outdoor spaces.
Transformed from a place to play notes to a place to take notes, the LEED-certified Moore Building is set to become another Music City icon given its prime location and its historically respectful design and modern twists.
