Inside The Striking Redesign Of Nashville International Airport

As one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., the country-music capital needed to modernize and expand its airport. Corgan developed a phase program to achieve this at Nashville International Airport, with the third stage focused on renovating the terminal lobby and constructing an international arrivals facility—a 4.4 million-square-foot project completed in collaboration with Fentress Architects. By replacing common friction points with open spaces, double-height volumes, and ample natural light, the transformed hub offers travelers a more comfortable and efficient experience. A 50-foot-high glass box creates a dramatic “front door” to the airy lobby, where a wood-slat ceiling, punctuated by narrow skylights, evokes the frets of the city of Tennessee’s trademark: the guitar. A large central oculus suggests a sound hole, completing the musical allusion while illuminating a suspended sculptural installation by Jacob Hashimoto. The cascading assemblage of 9,000 washi paper kites references local iconography, architecture, and natural features, further grounding Nashville International Airport in its regional identity.

Rainbow Hues Inform Autodesk’s Innovative Office in Atlanta

The ongoing BeltLine project has become symbolic of Atlanta’s urban renewal; when finished, the former railway corridor will reconnect historically divided neighborhoods in one 22-mile loop of trails, parks, and public transportation. That was the concept Corgan took inspiration from when developing the floor plan for software behemoth Autodesk’s latest regional outpost. It’s arranged in a loop with “destinations” spread out along the way, each themed around a local landmark like Ponce City Market or the Krog Street Tunnel. Schemes were rendered in a mix of hand sketches and, of course, CAD.

Atlanta has nearly 50 percent tree coverage, so arboreal elements are everywhere, here, too, as in reception’s desk shaped like a giant trunk stump and the layered rainbow canopy with leaf graphics above it. But greening is more than just for show at this LEED Gold ID+C v4.0–certified workplace. The effort started with landing the office in a walkable neighborhood close to mass transit and continued into the construction phase, where more than half of all waste was diverted from landfill by either reusing or recycling it.