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Homekey LifeMoves | Mountain View – ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Winner
Learn more about 2022 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Finalist, Homekey Mountain View (Mountain View, CA).
225 Polk – ULI Americas Awards for Excellence Finalist
May 11, 2022
Photo By Eric Laignel for HASTINGS
Post-renovation, lit for the first time in nearly two decades, soaring 16-foot arched windows with new, clearer glass wrap the perimeter of the building providing transparency and inviting the community to see the workspace within.
Photo By Eric Laignel for HASTINGS
The design introduces accents of darker tones, textures, and materials that infuse the environment with subtle touches of edge and soul.
Location: Nashville, TN, USA
Developers: 225 Polk Avenue Partners
Designers: HASTINGS Architecture
Site Size: 0.73 Acres
Photo By Eric Laignel for HASTINGS
Illuminating the history of the building, linear pendant lights run diagonally across the studio referring to the angled library stacks that once occupied the same space. Inspired by classic library tables, walnut topped desks sit in long rows throughout the studio.
255 Polk is a repositioning of Nashville’s former main Public Library building as LEED Gold certified creative office space designed by HASTINGS.
The redevelopment of 225 Polk was visionary in its aspirations for a forgotten neighborhood and innovative in the owners’ approach to partnerships that enabled the private acquisition of a public property for the continued preservation of this landmark building.
Photo By Eric Laignel for HASTINGS
View from Polk Avenue into the Café. Soaring 16’-high arched windows, which wrap the perimeter of the building, afford pedestrians and passersby a unique transparency, inviting the community to see the studio and workspace inside.
After the Nashville Public Library relocated in 2001, this 42,000 SF building remained mostly dormant until 2017 when it was purchased from the city and the heirs of the original landowners. In a state of disrepair, the 55-year-old New Formalist building required an extensive restoration including significant façade repair, a complete replacement of all building systems, and the introduction of efficient new technologies.
The spirit of the former library auditorium remains intact with The Athenaeum—a community room located directly off the building’s main lobby that is accessible to the public and intended for use by the city, community organizations, and non-profit groups.
Photo By Eric Laignel for HASTINGS
As with a library, the space offers varying degrees of privacy from individual focused workspace to a large café and open studio. A walnut slat wall—directly inspired by a slat wall in the original library auditorium— delineates between public space and the studio.
Today, 225 Polk stands newly restored and thriving as a creative hub, home to HASTINGS — the nationally recognized architecture and interior design firm that restored it — top-tier residential architecture firm McAlpine, and the Nashville office of United Talent Agency. Beyond the 140 creatives who work at 225 Polk every day, the preservation of this architectural gem is both a point of pride and a new resource for the city.