188: Adaptive Reuse | Neuhoff District

Detailed: An original podcast by ARCAT

The episode explores the complex adaptive reuse of the historic Neuhoff meatpacking plant in Nashville, Tennessee. Architect Dryden Razund d

Key takeaways

• The project involves transforming 914,000 square feet of former meatpacking complex into a multi-use neighborhood.
• Architects utilized a 'stabilized ruin' approach to preserve the industrial character while ensuring structural safety.

Main topics

• Adaptive Reuse
• Urban Redevelopment

Notable quotes

It was both daunting and magical.

Conclusion

The episode demonstrates how adaptive reuse can revitalize urban fabri

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) If you haven't already, explore the many ways to connect with our show. Watch full, uncut conversations on YouTube, gain AIA-approved continuing education credits through Arcademy, and make sure to check us out Speaker 4 (0:14) and follow us on social media at Detailed Podcast. This is an original podcast by Arcat. Try the number one most used website for finding building product information and save time and money. No registration is required with RCAT, so try it today and get ahead on your next project. Visit RCAT.com. That's A-R-C-A-T dot com. Speaker 1 (0:38) After hours, someone got up there and started a fire and burned part mid-construction down. And so at that point, the construction, the client, and the partner architects made the decision, well... we're going to make this a tenant terrace now. And so I know that's an extreme example of adapting to conditions during a construction, but I think with any adaptive reuse, that's what you have to be ready for. This is Speaker 4 (1:13) Detailed, an original podcast by RCAT. I am your host, Cherise Lakeside, Senior Specification Writer at RDH Building Science and fondly known as the CSI Kraken. Speaker 4 (1:34) We will speak with professionals who share their insights into the most complex, interesting, and odd building conditions and the ingenuity it took to make it work. Join me as I pull back the curtain on the building industry and uncover the lessons learned. You'll gain valuable knowledge to help you better navigate your next project. Speaker 5 (1:58) My guest today is Dryden Razouk, Principal at S9 Architecture in New York City. Dryden has 20 years of architectural design and development experience. He designs projects at all scales across the mixed-use, retail, office, and multifamily sectors, and at S9 focuses on innovative solutions that blend adaptive reuse, new architecture, and placemaking interventions to create vibrant community hubs. The project we're talking about today is the incredibly, absolutely cool Newhoff District in Nashville, Tennessee. But before we get started, don't forget to take a look at the project photos and drawings as you listen along. You can click the link in our show notes or visit www.rcat.com slash podcast. Speaker 5 (2:52) For decades, the former Newhoff Slaughterhouse occupied a prominent stretch of Nashville's Cumberland River waterfront. Yet its abandonment created a physical and visual barrier between Germantown and the river. S9 Architecture saw the site's industrial remnants and challenging topography not as constraints to overcome, but as the foundation for a new architectural framework. Speaker 1 (3:22) This project is the Newhoff District, and the Newhoff was a meatpacking facility started at the turn of the century by Mr. Newhoff. And he was a German emigrant. And that's one reason why the area around Newhoff is called Germantown is because all of his employees lived around there. And so that's how it's got its name. But so it was a meatpacking plant that, gosh, you know, 1,200. head of cattle and sheep would arrive weekly by train. And that's relevant because, you know, when you look at the adaptive reuse, it's actually shaped as an arc. And that was because they built right up to the arc of the train spur when they were expanding. And then there was additional buildings that were the holding pens, offices, and repair shops. And then, you know, one other function that was happening on the site was they were mooring barges on the Cumberland River from the site. So when we arrived, the Newhoff family no longer owned it. It was another Tennessee family. And it was defunct. There was nothing happening in the big curved building that you wanted to know about. The moorings were still happening on the river. But then, really, there was only two buildings still being occupied, one by a jazz center and the other by a retailer, a cobbler. And so the family that owned this, there's one brother in particular that... paid a lot of love and thought this had a lot of value. And so after he passed, the family decided that they were going to sell him. You know, at this point, the siblings are in their 70s. And so this is before S9 got involved. But so Jim Irwin, the head of New City, along with many other developers, approached the family and he said, you know, I want to honor your brother's legacy. And I am, you know, I develop projects that... are centered around adaptive reuse and maintain the historical character. So that was really the beginning of the kind of the Newhoff journey. It was beautiful and scary at the same time. The main building has two sub-basements that were flooded. I think the property manager had a gun with them because I think at one point they found a rather large snake in there. And some parts of the building we couldn't even go into because they were so structurally unsound. But there's also a real beauty to it because it was a ruin. There were trees growing through the roof. You thought you had kind of stumbled into this magical place that had been forgotten by time. So it was kind of Speaker 5 (5:46) a Speaker 1 (5:46) double-edged sword, the first walkthrough. It was both daunting and magical. Speaker 5 (5:51) The 914,000-square-foot Newhoff District transforms the former meatpacking complex into a mixed-use neighborhood through a layered approach to adaptive reuse. Speaker 1 (6:02) In a lot of our projects, we look at the adaptive reuse as the centerpiece that gives character to the place. And from a developer point of view, right, I think that the cost of developing some of these adaptive reuse has to be sponsored by new builds to make it financially feasible. And so it became clear that this was going to be kind of the special place that connected not only all of the new buildings, the new office building and the residential buildings, but also allowed two things. One, Germantown to connect to the riverfront. Tennessee, for a long time, there was no connection to the riverfront because it was a working river high on a bluff. In addition to a pedestrian green-ray network that had been kind of instigated in there with no real activation yet happening. A vibrant micro-neighborhood we look at as a place that can really be approached from all directions. So it has no back door and front door from every approach that connects to the neighborhood. to the broader city and really becomes the center or the hub, not just for the project itself, but for the broader neighborhood. And, you know, I think a lot of times we talk about this and our client will say, gosh, I'm going to make this great neighborhood that everyone wants to be. Aren't all my neighbors going to benefit off of this? And, you know, our response is, well, we sure hope so, but rising tide brings up all boats, but you're going to be the center and that's where you want to be. So that was really... The idea that this would be a micro-neighborhood, but also part of the broader Germantown neighborhood. Speaker 2 (7:35) Dryden and John and the S9 team, I mean, we've worked together now for, gosh, 15 years on varying projects. And we work closely enough together that it's one of those great things where we, I know that we all view the world through the same lens and we can kind of speak in code. Speaker 5 (7:57) This is Jim Irwin, president of New City Properties, the client for this project. Speaker 2 (8:03) I love bringing like really hard, challenging. Speaker 2 (8:08) projects to work on with S9 just because it sort of feels like going out on an adventure with Indiana Jones a little bit. You know, we go into these buildings and it's like, you never get a, what are you doing? It's more like, okay, let's go and figure out exactly. The mission is like, it's not just about how we save this, but it's like, what does human movement look like through these spaces? How can we organize it in a way that's cohesive and leaseable, but also honors the history and extracts that sort of baseline story of what a building, when it lives and breathes, what it can be. Speaker 5 (8:56) Rather than clearing the site for a singular development, the design retains and restores significant industrial structures, introducing new buildings, landscape, and public spaces between them. Contemporary interventions are positioned alongside historic fabric and remnants of the former complex, creating a dialogue between the site's working past and its new urban role. Speaker 1 (9:24) The original scope was a master plan that was divided into three phases. Phase one is what you see today, and that is the adaptive reuse curve building, which is office and retail on the ground, two floors. And then an additional office building that's been built along with two residential buildings that are centered around an adaptive reuse kind of shed, even though they are new. And then... One of the biggest struggles with any site is a garage for 2,000 cars. So that is all part of phase one. Phase two, which is happening, which I'm very excited about, is another office building on a pad site left in there that eventually is going to have a bridge connecting over the road, the two office buildings. So that will probably get started construction beginning of next year. And then finally, the third phase, which is... On the other