Nashville TN

Nashville, TN

By: Jabina Shrestha

Happy New Year 2013 and Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a good break. As we all know the architecture graduate students have a big semester coming up. We all are expected to work on our Thesis project on our own time. Well, it seems this semester will be a bit lighter because we have a lot less “class” time but on the other side of the spectrum, I won’t have much free time. I for one will have to really schedule my time for thesis, other classes, GA and Lab work accordingly. 

Well, knowing all that, I had promised myself to work on thesis over the break right before the final presentation of Comprehensive Design Studio fall 2012. I was able accomplish all sets of work that was required but self satisfaction is a big thing which I was not. I could not find my work to a level of professional work. And the main reason behind it was lack of time towards the end. Of course, we had plenty of time, the whole semester. It was due to habit of "procrastination". So I decided to follow "Do it today because Tomorrow will be today tomorrow". With that note, I met my chair person, got several books to read , planned to make a schedule for the semester, do a site visit and analysis. And still, I accomplished nothing thesis-related over break. All of the time was eaten up by family and friends gatherings, visit to Nashville Tennessee, smoky mountain, Christmas parties, new year's celebrations.

Apart from all, the best part of the break is a visit that I along with my family members had made to Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, Nashville Tennessee. On the banks of the Cumberland River, Gaylord Opryland was a short drive about 20 minutes from downtown Nashville. It was first time in my life where I got chance to experience the energy and excitement of Music City. I could see the glass atrium that lied an extraordinary selection of dining, shopping and recreation options that helped to create the perfect setting for a complete getaway.

I was totally amazed to find Cascades Lobby, restaurants Solario and Ravello, lounges, water falls and The Conservatory Bar and Magnolia Guest Rooms all in one roof. As we walked by, we were astonished by the nine acres of indoor gardens, cascading waterfalls and the indoor river with its own Delta flatboats beneath our glass atriums inside the hotel. Specially during Christmas, could see millions of decorative lights decorated all over the places with animatronics in all three atriums.

Without waiting any longer went to get some information at front desk and found out that with more than 600,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, Gaylord Opryland is the largest non-gaming, in-hotel exhibition space in the world. It can handle from a large exhibition to small team building session.

There are basically 5 major areas in the hotel. First one is the Magnolia is the lobby and retail area of the hotel. Second is the Garden Conservatory. It's the first atrium constructed, and considered to be the heart of the hotel where I saw a wedding ceremony happening near the Lionhead Fountain and Crystal Gazebo. Next is the Cascades which is the second atrium constructed. It features the Cascades American Café as well as Wasabi (a Japanese sushi restaurant) which had really good food, and the hotel's largest beautiful waterfalls. Delta, it is the third and largest atrium constructed which is the main center of activity. The largest convention area in the Tennessee is the Convention Center with three main exhibit areas and five ballrooms.

Apart from all excitements and good experience, I found out too confusing to navigate from one area to another and to link them. I found out that it is due to its continued expansion, the hotel does not have a universal structure layout. But I suggest everyone to make a visit to Gaylord Opryland hotel at least once in their life to see how one can make use of space and create a different world that we can imagine to have it all under one roof.