Bjarke Ingels' Tennessee Performing Arts Center features façade of 'aluminum tubes bundled like organ pipes'

Architecture firm BIG has released its design for Nashville’s new Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC), which will be located on the Cumberland River in the city’s East Bank neighborhood. TPAC will neighbor Cumberland Park and the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Stadium.

With construction slated to start in 2027 and finish in 2030, the 307,000-sf center will include four performance spaces: the Grand Broadway theater, a dance and opera hall, a flexible box theater, and an intimate cabaret space. TPAC also will offer rehearsal studios and classrooms.

TPAC will serve as the new home of the Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, and Nashville Repertory Theatre. In addition, TPAC will provide venues for traveling Broadway shows, dance performances, and community events.

The center’s reflective metal façade comprises an array of aluminum tubes. Like a theater curtain, the arches on the center’s exterior lift to reveal the interior activity.

“The façade is composed of aluminum tubes bundled like organ pipes or steel chimes, undulating from vertical to horizontal to provide openings and canopies for the audience and performers passing through,” Bjarke Ingels, BIG founder and creative director, said in a statement. “The result is like a flowing public pavilion in the park.”

The center will feature a light-filled atrium and two lobbies: a main, street-level lobby with views of the river and proposed waterfront park, and an elevated lobby fronting the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge. A grand staircase, central lounge, and cascading concrete slabs invite visitors to congregate.

The Broadway Theater organizes seating into intimate clusters, staggered in height for improved sightlines. The opera and dance hall is designed to enhance views of the dancers’ feet. The black box provides flexible seating configurations. And the cabaret space features a stage that extends into the audience, as well as banquet-style seating.

Other spaces include a transparent rehearsal space offering visitors a behind-the-scenes view, a sensory room for a calming environment during performances, and a rooftop terrace. Outdoor staircases connect TPAC to the river and the East Bank district.

On the building team: Tennessee Performing Arts Center (owner), BIG (design architect and architect of record), Altieri (MEP engineer), TYLin (structural engineer), JE Dunn (general contractor).