Vanderbilt Innovation District

Vanderbilt University's Innovation Neighborhood is a planned mixed-use district on roughly 40 acres at the southwest edge of its Midtown Nashville campus, on land bounded generally by West End Avenue, Natchez Trace, Vanderbilt Place and 31st Avenue South that today is largely employee parking and low-rise retail. The Specific Plan approved by Nashville's Metro Council allows roughly 6.1 million square feet of research and lab space, corporate and startup offices, housing, restaurants and retail. Conceptual designs by Bjarke Ingels Group, Hastings Architecture and James Corner Field Operations show a layered district of buildings set within a connected street network and landscaped public realm, with green space growing by about 300 percent and tree canopy by about 175 percent. Buildings along West End Avenue may reach 27 to 30 stories, those at the center of the site are capped at 20 to 25 stories, and buildings along 31st Avenue South are held to eight stories at the street edge. Council conditions include bird-safe glass, a $750,000 neighborhood traffic-calming fund and a neighborhood advisory committee that reviews plans publicly, with build-out planned in phases.