The playful, creative nature of the East Nashville community influenced the design aesthetic for Walden, a two-story, mixed-use infill development consisting of modern apartments above food and retail businesses. (Other Powell projects located at Walden include Japanese-inspired izakaya Two Ten Jack, Nashville’s first Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams location, Ugly Mugs Coffee & Tea and Five Daughters Bakery.) The site was previously home to a large (and long-abandoned) senior-living facility, and our client saw an opportunity to continue the revitalization of the neighborhood, and adaptively reuse an existing building while adding additional floors and reimagining the look of the structure and site. To bring personality and an artistic edge to the development, the Powell team used a mix of materials — brick, stucco, exposed steel, metal siding and glass — in a continual ebb and flow that carries visual interest front to back, top to bottom.