BIG and WRA Design Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and William Rawn Associates, with HASTINGS Architecture, have unveiled designs for the new Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) on Nashville's East Bank. The 307,000-square-foot facility will feature four performance spaces: the Grand Broadway theater, an opera and dance hall, a flexible black box theater, and an intimate cabaret space, plus rehearsal studios and classrooms. The center will become the permanent home of the Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, and Nashville Repertory Theatre, while also hosting touring Broadway shows and community events. The reflective aluminum tube facade is inspired by theater curtains and creates a dynamic sculptural volume. Two lobbies connect to the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge and the Cumberland River, with landscape design by OLIN. Construction is slated to begin in 2027, with completion expected in 2030. TPAC President and CEO Jennifer Turner stated the center represents the future of performing arts in Nashville and Tennessee. Bjarke Ingels described the design as an urban and cultural connection between the east and west banks. The project joins BIG's cultural portfolio including the Hamburg State Opera, Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, and Vltava Philharmonic Hall in Prague.