Nashville MTA - Music City Central

Central Station - A new downtown transit center for Nashville

September 9, 2008

Music City Central BIG GIG jingle contest deadline September 15

Nashville, TN – Deadline to enter the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority’s (MTA) jingle contest for its new downtown transit station Music City Central (MCC) is September 15.

The site where MCC is being built is near what was once home to world-class music and entertainment, and the MTA is presenting this jingle contest to continue the rich musical history of the area.

The MCC BIG GIG Jingle Contest, whose corporate sponsor is Balfour Beatty Construction, is open to anyone ages 15 and older who live in the Nashville Metro Services Area. This includes Davidson, Robertson, Sumner, Macon, Trousdale, Smith, Wilson, Cannon, Rutherford, Williamson, Hickman, Dickson and Cheatham counties.

Each entry must be an original, 60-second jingle in any genre promoting MCC and the many benefits of public transportation. Entries should be submitted on a CD beginning Aug. 1. Celebrity judges and industry experts, including those who work on Music Row, will choose the winner. The winner will receive $1,500 cash (donated by corporate sponsor Balfour Beatty Construction), special recognition, and a chance to perform at the Grand Opening. Deadline to enter is Sept. 15.

When completed, MCC will be a multi-level indoor facility that will serve as the central hub for MTA buses. It will replace the outdoor transit mall on Deaderick Street and will create a centralized transit facility within the Central Business District (CBD) of Nashville.

It will feature climate-controlled waiting areas, an information and ticket sales center, ticket vending machines and small retail businesses such as a donut shop or newsstand. It is expected to serve 18,000 passengers each weekday.

MCC is being built with mostly federal funds (80 percent) and the remaining are state and local dollars. Nashville-based architect Gary Everton of Everton Oglesby Architects is the architect of the project. He leads the TranSystems/EOA team in Nashville. Balfour Beatty Construction is the construction manager for the project.

To learn more about the Music City Central Jingle Contest, please visit www.nashvillemta.org/jinglecontest for the official rules on the contest.

September 9, 2008

Music City Central continues to take shape
Station located in area of rich musical history

Nashville, TN – Music City Central, the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority’s (MTA) new downtown transit station, is looking more like the station that will serve up to 20,000 passengers each weekday.

Construction remains on schedule and the building continues to take shape daily as the construction crew and its subcontractors move toward completion of some of the building’s exterior elements.

“Music City Central will provide our current riders, and others who are now taking a serious look at public transportation due to high fuel prices, with a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled facility to meet their transportation needs,” Nashville MTA Chief Executive Officer Paul J. Ballard said. “Those who pass by the construction site can clearly see that each day we move closer to opening this long-awaited facility.”

As of today, Balfour Beatty Construction and its team of subcontractors have completed the limestone exterior of the building; installed and begun painting the perforated metal panels covering the pre-cast openings of the parking garage space on the third, fourth and fifth floors; and continued to install the glass and entryways that enclose the climate-controlled waiting areas. Inside the building, the crew is laying the intricate terrazzo flooring and painting the freshly hung drywall.

“The facility is on schedule, within budget and on track to open for buses, passengers and retailers this fall,” said Otho Webster, division vice president for Balfour Beatty Construction.

The limestone cladding on the exterior of the structure was selected by Everton Oglesby Architects for its consistency with the surrounding municipal buildings.

“We selected limestone for the building’s lower levels to convey a sense of quality and permanence similar to other nearby municipal buildings,” said Gary Everton, Principal of Everton Oglesby Architects and MCC designer. “Located in the Nashville Central Business District, this transit hub will represent both the strength and vitality of our city for decades to come.

” The developments come after nearly 15 months of scheduled construction and several years of careful planning by many groups, including the Nashville MTA Board of Directors; the 29-member Music City Central Steering Committee; transportation consultants TranSystems, Everton Oglesby Architects, Balfour Beatty Construction; bus riders; area residents and many others.

The site where MCC is being built is near what was once home to world-class music and entertainment. Next door to what is now MCC sat the Adelphi Theatre, which when it opened in 1850 was the nation’s second-largest theatre with 2,500 seats. The Republican Banner, the city’s newspaper, called the Adelphi “…one of the prettiest and best establishments of the kind in the West or South.” The following year, the famed Jenny Lind, known as the “Swedish Nightingale”, came to Nashville to sing at the Adelphi.

In the 1870s, ownership changed, and the Adelphi became the Grand Opera House until the structure was gutted by fire in 1902. In 1904, the facility was rebuilt and reopened as the Bijou. It closed in 1913, but re-opened three years later as the Bijou Theater, a venue for movies, vaudeville shows, concerts and boxing matches. In 1957, the Bijou Theater was demolished to make way for Municipal Auditorium.

The MCC grand opening is scheduled for October 24 and bus service will begin two days later. In addition to the grand opening ceremony, there will be contests and live music events leading up to the grand opening.

About Music City Central
Music City Central (MCC), the Nashville MTA’s new downtown transit station, has been in development since 2004. Construction will be complete and the facility will open on October 26, 2008. The state-of-the-art, climate-controlled transit station is located at 400 Charlotte Ave., between 4th and 5th Avenues North in downtown Nashville’s Central Business District. It replaces the outdoor Transit Mall on Deaderick Street. MCC, with 434,314 square feet of space, has two levels to serve bus riders, multiple ticketing locations, retail space, passenger restrooms and bus notification signage. MCC provides the necessary infrastructure to improve bus frequencies and create greater regional transit efficiencies advancing the objectives of slowing congestion growth, combating air pollution and reducing road-building costs.

August 12, 2008

Music City Central BIG GIG jingle contest judges well-known in music industry

Nashville, TN – Key entertainers and music executives, including those who work on Music Row, have agreed to judge the Music City Central BIG GIG jingle contest. This talented celebrity panel includes Kirk Whalum (Grammy-nominated musician); Beverly Keel (Tennessean columnist); Tim Fink (Vice President Writer/Publisher Relations for SESAC, Inc.); Paul Kwami (Musical Director for Fisk Jubilee Singers); Woody Wood and Jim Chandler (Woody & Jim, 107.5 The River); Karen Leipziger (KBA Award-Winning Publicist); Deen Entsminger (Belmont University music professor and bus rider); Thomas F. "Freddie" O'Connell (MTA Board member and bus rider ); and Otho Webster (Division Vice President Balfour Beatty Construction, corporate sponsor for the contest.)

Below is brief biographical information on the judges.

Kirk Whalum
Kirk Whalum grew up in Memphis in a musical family and began his career on the drums before switching to saxophone in junior high school. He has earned eight Grammy nominations for his work and has recorded with artists such as Whitney Houston, Nancy Wilson, Al Jarreau, Luther Vandross, Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones and others. Whalum has recorded songs for movie soundtracks including Boys in the Hood, Grand Canyon, The Prince of Tides and The Bodyguard. He has released nearly 20 albums, and is completing his recent live recording Gospel According to Jazz Chapter lll that will be released later this year.

Beverly Keel
Beverly Keel is the celebrity columnist at The Tennessean and a recording industry professor at Middle Tennessee State University, where she serves as director of the Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies. She served as a Nashville correspondent for People for a decade, and spent three years as an editor of American Profile magazine, for which she wrote cover stories on Billy Graham, Laura Bush, Andy Griffith, John Grisham, Joe Namath and many more. She also was the editor-in-chief of CMT magazine.

Tim Fink
Tim Fink is Associate Vice-President Writer/Publisher Relations for SESAC, Inc., the nation's fastest growing performing rights organization. He has been with SESAC since 1990, and has had the opportunity to work closely with SESAC songwriters and publishers from a wide range of genres. Appointed the head of the Nashville Writer/Publisher Relations team in 2002, he has been instrumental in building the company's burgeoning roster of top songwriters resulting in the company's unprecedented growth.

Karen Leipziger
Karen Leipziger is a KBA Award winning publicist (2007) and W.C. Handy Award-nominated songwriter (2001 - "Winds Of Change"/Eddy 'The Chief' Clearwater's "Reservation Blues"). She has been actively supporting and promoting her artists for more than a decade. Leipziger formed her own publicity company KL Productions in the 1990s. Prior to launching her own company, she worked with Concerted Efforts booking agency in Boston and the band Aerosmith's management team Collins Associates in the publicity department.

Paul T. Kwami
Paul T. Kwami is the Musical Director and Curb-Beaman Chair of The Fisk University Jubilee Singers. He became the first African to become Musical Director when he was named to the position in 1994. Under his leadership, the Fisk Jubilee Singers have received numerous awards, including induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, a Grammy Nomination and a Dove Award. Kwami also served as Executive Producer of the recording entitled Rise, Shine! Fisk Jubilee Singers Live In Concert and Co-Executive Producer of In Bright Mansions. Born in Ghana, West Africa, Kwami is a graduate of Mawuli Secondary School, Ho, Akropong Presbyterian Teacher's Training College and the National Academy of Music, Winneba. He taught music in Ghana before migrating to the United States in 1983.

Deen Entsminger
Deen Entsminger has been a music educator for 36 years. He currently coordinates the undergraduate music education program at Belmont University, directs the chamber singers, teaches music theory, private composition, secondary choral methods, undergraduate and graduate classes in choral conducting, and mentors students in the undergraduate honors and graduate music education program. He has many published compositions with Colla Voce and the Musical Source Publishing.

Woody Wood and Jim Chandler
Better known as "Woody & Jim," Woody Wood and Jim Chandler have been hosting a morning show on Nashville’s 107-5 The River for 10 years. Their unique take on current events, prank phone calls, daily games such as Gender Wars, and community service have made them fixtures in Nashville radio.

Thomas F. "Freddie" O'Connell
Freddie O’Connell was named to the MTA board in May 2008. He is the internet strategist for SouthComm Communications, the parent company of NashvillePost.com and The City Paper. He also co-hosts a political talk radio show called Liberadio(!), which airs locally on WRVU-FM. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Brown University in 2000.

Otho Webster
Otho Webster is the division vice president of Balfour Beatty Construction, the company overseeing the construction of MTA's Music City Central. He has 33 years of construction experience, including 18 with Balfour Beatty Construction. In addition to Music City Central, Otho has overseen the construction of some of Nashville's other landmark buildings including Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The site where Music City Central (MCC) is being built is near what was once home to world-class music and entertainment, and the MTA is sponsoring this jingle contest to highlight the rich musical history of the area.

The jingle contest, whose corporate sponsor is Balfour Beatty Construction, is open to anyone ages 15 and older who live in the Nashville Metro Services Area. This includes Davidson, Robertson, Sumner, Macon, Trousdale, Smith, Wilson, Cannon, Rutherford, Williamson, Hickman, Dickson and Cheatham counties.

NEWS ARCHIVE

• August 5th 2008: MTA, Balfour Beatty Construction conducting Music City Central BIG GIG jingle contest

• December 2007: Balfour Beatty and MTA Welcome “Art on the Move”

• March 2007: Nashville MTA Schedules Transportation Fairs for Downtown Workers

• January 2005: Phase I Planning Nearly Complete on New MTA Downtown Transit Center

• March 2005: New Music City Central Meeting Scheduled for March 14

• May 2005: Design, amenities, structure of new downtown transit center offer superior rider convenience