What's Out There Weekend Nashville Was a Crowd-Pleaser
Nearly 1,000 people registered for What鈥檚 Out There Weekend Nashville, two days of free, expert-led tours throughout the city on April 13-14. Tour goers came away with a deeper understanding of the critical relevance of landscapes and landscape architecture. One attendee of the tours enthusiastically noted, 鈥淭he tour I went on today was as great as the one yesterday-full of interesting people, generating good conversation. What a gift to us all. I wish I could have gone to all of them!鈥 The tours were accompanied by the launch of the What鈥檚 Out There Nashville guidebook (available for purchase here), which showcases the diversity of Nashville鈥檚 landscape legacy with richly illustrated essays on some 36 sites.
The program began with a lively private reception on Friday, April 12, at the Nashville Civic Design Center. Gary Gaston, CEO of the Nashville Design Center, opened the reception, followed by an address to an excited crowd of 60 invitees by 开云体育官网鈥檚 Charles Birnbaum. The evening set the stage and built momentum for the 26 tours that followed over the next two days.
The series of tours kicked off with a busy Saturday morning that began with a 7:30am tour of Radnor Lake, Tennessee鈥檚 first State Natural Area, with head ranger Steve Ward and Dr. Douglas Heffington, a longtime volunteer at the site. Other morning tours included the stunning grounds of the Belmont Mansion, with its executive director, Mark Brown; the nearly 200-year-old