Silo Studios: A Game Of Dominoes – Nashville Post
Nashville Post managing editor William Williams interviewed our President and Principal Glynn Dowdle for a story about Silo Studios, a prominent adaptive reuse/restoration construction project in The Nations. The story appeared in the Post’s fall 2020 issue.
Part of the overall Silo Bend community, Silo Studios is a two-story, 80,000-square-foot former lumber mill that Dowdle, in partnership with architect Southeast Venture Design and owner/developer Flyway, is converting into an office and retail space. Spanning 137 feet from one side of the building to the other – and with no intermediate structures or columns in between – it’s one of the largest bow truss structures in Nashville.
The old lumber mill had sat abandoned for nearly 15 years before we began our reconstruction work, and when the previous tenant moved in 2006, it created holes in the roof and sides of the building when it removed some of its heavy milling equipment.
The Post quotes Glynn saying, “This made it extremely difficult to determine the true extent of the damage and understand what would need to be replaced,” he says. “It wasn’t until we started removing some elements of the building that we could get a clearer picture of the work that lay ahead. It became like a game of dominoes. We’d remove something only to uncover another issue.”
As with any adaptive reuse/restoration project in Nashville, Silo Studios came with its own set of challenges. For example, it was important to Flyway that we preserve as much of the original materials as possible. However, as the Post quotes Glynn, “Despite the majority of [the original tongue-and-groove hardwood flooring] having been water damaged — with other areas that had been soaked with oil that dripped from the machines or covered in an ungodly amount of sawdust and dirt — we were ultimately able to save and restore enough to cover the floor in the main lobby.”
Glynn notes that despite continual adjustments to overcome daily changes or challenges, regular interaction with the expert team we worked with ensured that we could deliver a solid product.
Silo Studios opened on Nov. 1.
Read the full story in Nashville Post here.