The impact of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System in the 1960s through North Nashville has consequences on the vitality of the community and the prosperity of its residents to this day. When planning the location of Tennessee’s interstate system in the 1940s, city planners were charged with getting interstates in and out of the major cities without causing too much disruption in the city street system and existing buildings. I-40 was originally slated to pass Vanderbilt University however, in the late 60s, city planners routed the interstate eastward through the middle of a predominantly African American neighborhood known today as North Nashville. This caused concern among the black residents who felt that the interstate would decrease property value and ruin businesses. Their speculations became reality and the vibrance of the community never recovered. Reparations have never been made for this traumatic injustice and it has made gentrification easy and displacement inevitable. The design solution for the Barbara G. Laurie Design Student Competition should embody principals of truth and reconciliation for the trauma created by the addition of the interstate.
Nearly half a century later, the 117th Congress has developed the $1.2 Trillion Infrasturucture Investment and Jobs Act which plans to rebuild outdated infrastructure throughout America and reconnect broken communities. In recent years, there has been a push by the Metro Nashville Department of Planning and Transportation to right the wrongs of the Highway Interstate System.
Every solution makes an effort to knit the razed community of North Nashville back together and to restore its roots. The 2022 Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition tasks students from across the nation to address the challenges of rebuilding the community through design and architectural strategies.
File Attachments: NOMA_STUDENTDESIGNCOMPETITION_Nashville_2022
