Chamberlain House is a 345-unit multifamily community on 2nd Avenue North in the Sulphur Dell subdistrict of downtown Nashville. Developed by Proffitt Dixon Partners on the former stockyards site, the project sits along the downtown greenway that links Germantown, Bicentennial Mall, and the urban core. Hawkins Partners provided landscape architecture and entitlement services in partnership with EOA, Barge Civil Associates, Axiom Architecture, and Manuel Zeitlin Architects.
Hawkins Partners led the entitlement process for Chamberlain House, guiding the development team through a site with significant constraints. A Metro Water Services stormwater tunnel runs beneath the property, with an easement covering the greenway and most of the dog park. CSX rail lines border the site, and overhead power lines along 2nd Avenue meant fire crews needed access from the greenway side. We coordinated with Metro Planning, Metro Greenways, and Metro Water Services to establish property lines and define control of the greenway corridor, then worked with the fire marshal to integrate widened outrigger zones for fire apparatus without breaking up the pedestrian experience.
The owner saw the greenway as the project’s defining asset, and we built the entitlement strategy around it. The Sulphur Dell subdistrict caps heights at five stories along 2nd Avenue to protect views of the State Capitol. We positioned enhanced lighting and activation of the greenway as the centerpiece of the project’s bonus height application, securing a sixth story. We also helped shape the agreement under which the development team designs, builds, and maintains the greenway segment in perpetuity, held to the same standard as the development itself.
Art runs throughout the landscape. Steel cactus sculptures line 2nd Avenue and Stockyards Boulevard, and a large mural spans the building façade. At the circular bench where two greenways meet, a weathered fish sculpture that once stood on the site was restored in chrome and returned to its place. We preserved a mature sycamore along the greenway and planted London plane trees nearby as a nod to the site’s existing canopy. The community also includes an expansive, fully fenced dog park, enlarged during design to give residents a true off-leash space.
Chamberlain House is the first of two phases. The second phase will extend the greenway with a restaurant and patio anchoring the corridor.
