Tennessee Performing Arts Center Nashville building images, East Bank cultural hub, TN architecture design

April 17, 2026

Design Architect: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and William Rawn Associates (WRA) with HASTINGS Architecture

Location: East Bank, Nashville, TN, United States of America

Nashville Takes Center Stage With New World-class Tennessee Performing Arts Center

Rendering by BIG

Tennessee Performing Arts Center Nashville, TN, USA

The new Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) – designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and William Rawn Associates (WRA) with HASTINGS Architecture – extends the vibrancy of downtown Nashville across the Cumberland River, emerging as a cultural anchor for the city’s reenergized East Bank. Designed to welcome the community from all sides, with the performance venues clustered at its core, the new TPAC supports a range of artistic programming while building upon Nashville’s rich legacy in the arts.

Situated on a waterfront site neighboring Cumberland Park and the Tennessee Titans’ Nissan Stadium, the new TPAC includes four performance spaces – the multi-function Grand Broadway theater; a dance and opera hall; a flexible black box theater; and an intimate cabaret space – as well as rehearsal studios and classrooms. As TPAC transitions from its current location downtown, the 307,000-sq-ft center will serve as the new home of the Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, and Nashville Repertory Theatre while creating venues for traveling Broadway shows, dance performances, and community events.

Rendering by Bloomimages

“This new center represents the future of the performing arts in Nashville and across our state. For more than four decades, TPAC has brought world-class performances and transformative arts education programs to Tennesseans. Our new home will allow us to welcome more audiences, support more artists, and expand the impact of the performing arts in communities across Tennessee.” – Jennifer Turner, President & CEO, TPAC

Rendering by BIG

“The new home for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center is designed like an urban and cultural connection – between the east and west bank of the Cumberland River, between the old and the new Nashville, and between all of the performing arts. Visually, it bookends Broadway as a beacon from across the river, drawing the cultural life of downtown across to the East Bank. Designed to be welcoming on all sides, the center is accessible from above and below the bridge, making the lobby a cascading public space for the daily life of the neighborhood. 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. The result is like a flowing public pavilion in the park that, as the new home for TPAC, provides the inclusive and inviting character that its program and performances deserve.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG

Render by BIG

TPAC’s reflective metal facade, composed of an array of aluminum tubes, creates a dynamic, sculptural volume that looks different from every vantage point in the city. Taking cues from an undulating theater curtain, the arches on the exterior lift to reveal the activity within.

Rendering by Bloomimages

Upon arrival, guests are welcomed by a light-filled atrium that draws the energy of the city inside. Two lobbies connect the performance spaces: the main lobby at street-level with views of the river and proposed waterfront park, and an elevated lobby fronting the landmark John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge. A grand staircase, central lounge, and cascading concrete slabs invite patrons to congregate before, after, and in between performances – reinforcing TPAC’s role as a social gathering place within Nashville.

Rendering by BIG

Within the Broadway Theater, floating wood-clad ‘trays’ organize the seating into intimate clusters, each staggered in height for optimized sightlines. The opera and dance hall is designed to enhance the views of the dancers’ feet, while the balconies reinforce a visual continuity with the stage. The Black Box Theater places the audience directly in the performance, eliminating the proscenium ‘picture frame’ that traditionally outlines the stage and allowing for different seating configurations tailored to each production. The Cabaret features a stage that extends into the audience, creating an intimate atmosphere complemented by banquet-style seating.

Rendering by Bloomimages

“At the heart of TPAC’s new home, four venues will create uniquely memorable theatrical experiences, celebrating the ‘vibrancy of theater in Music City.’ Each venue expresses its own personality while heightening audience experience and connection – an intimacy between performer and audience and a sense community among audiences of all ages.” – Cliff Gayley, Design Principal, WRA

Rendering by Bloomimages

A transparent rehearsal space offers visitors a glimpse behind the scenes, while a sensory room offers a calming environment during performances. Crowning the building, a roof terrace features sweeping views of Broadway, the Cumberland River, and the Nashville skyline.

Rendering by Bloomimages

Outdoor staircases connect TPAC to the river, integrating the center into Nashville’s new East Bank district and enhancing connectivity with the city beyond. Landscape design by OLIN surrounds the building with diverse plant life and pockets for public outdoor performances, gathering spaces, and play groves.

Rendering by BIG

“While typical performing arts centers have a clearly defined front and back, the site conditions of TPAC offer a unique opportunity to hide the back-of-house under the bridge, allowing the public space to surround the building on all sides. The dual entrances and wrap-around lobbies activate the entire perimeter – from ground level to bridge level – connecting audiences to the venue’s surroundings.

The halls are designed to accommodate a range of performances, with cascading mezzanines that connect the orchestra level to the balcony levels above. The central lobby will continuously pulse with energy, uniting patrons from different performances before and after each show.” – Thomas Christoffersen, Partner, BIG

Rendering by BIG

TPAC will join BIG’s growing portfolio of cultural projects, including the Hamburg State Opera, the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art in China, and the VLTAVA Philharmonic in Prague. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with a projected opening in 2030.

Tennessee Performing Arts Center Nashville, TN, United States – Building Information

PROJECT FACTS

Size: 307,000 sq ft
Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Client: Tennessee Performing Arts Center
Collaborators: William Rawn Associates, HASTINGS Architecture, Apeiro Design, TYLin, Altieri, Jaffe Holden, Kimley-Horn, Front, Thornton Tomasetti, VDA, Code Consultants, Inc., Tillotson Design Associates, Inman Foodservices Group, OLIN, L’Observatoire International, Atelier Ten, Venue Consulting

BIG TEAM
Partners-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen, Beat Schenk
Project Manager: Linus Saavedra
Project Designer: Kristian Hindsberg
Technical Lead: Julie Kaufman
Team: Ana Loayza, Cheng Zhong, Chia-Yu Liu, Dylan Hames, Hector Romero, Jan Leenknegt, Jialin Yuan, Marc Hargreaves, Margaret Tyrpa, Pooja Annamaneni, Sung-hwan Um, Tara Abedinitafreshi, Vi Madrazo, Ben Caldwell, San Yoon, Jihoon Kim, Joanne Zheng, Jeff Tao, Jaeho Park, Siqi Zhang, Ruijing Sun, Alvaro Velosa, Douglass Alligood, Ryan Henriksen, Ahmad Tabbakh, Hudson Parris, Quentin Wiesmath, Paul Heberle, Atousa Esmaeili, Mana Ikebe, Abdallah Kamel, Xiaoqi Zhan, Gavin Laughland

WRA TEAM
Partners-in-Charge: Cliff Gayley, Kevin Bergeron
Project Manager: Lauren Perry
Team: Amir Zarei, Juno Zhu, Molly Bennett, Dan Bielenin, Evan Warder, Henry Chung, Brian Putnam, Andy Jonic, Josué Pérez Campos, Liz Bondaryk, Ali Truwit, Colleen DeMatta, Julia Solecki

BIG-BJARKE INGELS GROUP

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group is a Copenhagen, New York, London, Barcelona, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Zurich-based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers, and inventors. Led by Bjarke Ingels, BIG is currently involved in projects throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East. BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. The studio believes that by hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, architects can find the freedom to change the surface of our planet to better fit contemporary life forms.

TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: A CULTURAL INSTITUTION SERVING TENNESSEE

Since opening its doors in 1980, the nonprofit Tennessee Performing Arts Center® (TPAC) has grown into one of the state’s leading cultural institutions. The vision for TPAC was championed by Martha Ingram alongside a dedicated group of civic and community leaders who believed in creating a permanent home for the performing arts in Tennessee. Together, they helped establish TPAC as a place where the arts and community live while welcoming audiences from across the state and beyond to experience Broadway productions, touring performances, and a range of live performing arts.

Today, TPAC presents hundreds of performances each year and continues to serve as a vital cultural hub for Tennessee. Central to that role is its support of three resident companies: the Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, and Nashville Repertory Theatre, each presenting full annual seasons at TPAC. These organizations play an essential role in providing audiences across the state with access to live classical performing arts, including ballet, opera, and theatre, reinforcing TPAC’s founding vision as a comprehensive performing arts center.

Arts education remains at the heart of TPAC’s mission. Through school partnerships, student matinees, classroom programs, and professional development opportunities for educators, TPAC connects students and teachers in communities across Tennessee with meaningful arts experiences. Since its founding, TPAC has served more than two million students, educators, and community participants through its education initiatives.

WILLIAM RAWN ASSOCIATES

William Rawn Associates, Architects, Inc., in Boston, is a nationally renowned design firm specializing in performing arts buildings within a broader portfolio of cultural, civic and educational projects. With over 30 years of experience designing performing arts projects, the firm creates welcoming buildings that actively engage the public realm and inspiring spaces that embrace creative flexibility and interdisciplinary innovation. The firm’s design process begins with listening and immersion to understand the unique spirit and ethos of each community. www.rawnarch.com

HASTINGS

HASTINGS, a nationally acclaimed firm based in Nashville, Tennessee, specializes in architecture, interior design, and urban planning. HASTINGS works throughout the United States across a diverse range of typologies – including cultural, music and entertainment, academic, commercial, multifamily, and hospitality. The firm is dedicated to delivering award-winning, sustainable designs that honor the environment and reflect local culture.

HASTINGS was recently recognized by The Architect’s Newspaper as a 2025 Best of Practice winner. The firm’s work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wallpaper, Architectural Record, and Interior Design. The firm’s accolades include over 100 design awards and 150 LEED certifications.

Tennessee Performing Arts Center Nashville, USA images / information received 170426

Location: Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Nashville Building Design

Nashville Architecture

Alcove Nashville Residential Tower Building, 900 Church Street, Nashville
Design Architect: Goettsch Partners

photo © James Steinkamp

The Place at Fifth and Broadway, Nashville
Design Architect: Pappageorge Haymes Partners

Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Nashville
Design: Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB)

Virgin Hotels Nashville, Music Row at 17th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Design: HASTINGS with Blur Workshop, interiors by Mark Zeff

Germantown Row Nashville
Design: rootARCH

++

Tennessee Buildings

Tennessee Architecture Designs – recent architectural selection from e-architect below:

Tennessee Buildings

Memphis Art Museum Building, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Design: Herzog and de Meuron

render Courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron

New Distillery Building in Tennessee, Lynchburg

Williams Street Loft in Chattanooga

++

US Architecture

American Architecture

American Architect – major US design studios on e-architect.

Visit Nashville – Music City USA

Comments / photos for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center Nashville, TN, USA designed by building page welcome.