Thursday n
ight at the Franklin Municipal Planning Commission, Studio 8 Design’s Matt Taylor presented a proposal for the “231 Building.” The 231 Building is commonly known as the First Tennessee Building on the square in Downtown Franklin next to City Hall. Yes, that 1970’s building that sticks out like a sore thumb and is presently trying to be camouflaged by overgrown trees.
The proposal to the Franklin Commission highlights:
- 1st Floor Restaurant with kitchen in basement
- 2nd and 3rd floors will be office
- Roof top bar
- First Tennessee retains a presence
- A new drive-thru will be provided, but detached
- Bringing front of the building out 20′ in order to re-establish the urban wall
- Better pedestrian access from the garage
- Perimeter parapet height to be reduced to 44′ so as to form regulatory (guardrail) barrier around rooftop bar along the majority of 3 sides of the building. While the rooftop height will not change the proposed parapet will top out at 56′ over the new stairs and elevators only, which are located internal to the block, away from the street edge.
Questions were immediately raised by some of the noise from a rooftop bar. Other than that 15 minutes of discussion (watch this weekend for a report on the Franklin Noise Ordinance) on noise, most seemed positive of the proposal.
