This exhibit chronicles the creation of The Plan of Nashville, a community-based, fifty-year vision of how the urban core of Nashville should look and work in the future. The Plan, completed in 2004, was conceived and orchestrated by the Nashville Civic Design Center, a non-profit organization committed to urban design and fostering public participation in the design process.

The visioning process that created The Plan involved more than 800 people in 50 community meetings that took place over two and a half years. The Plan of Nashville: Avenues to a Great City book was published by Vanderbilt University Press in 2005.

The exhibit features more than 100 original drawings, chronicling Nashville's historic development, plan's vision for the future, as well as the work the NCDC has done in the past five years since the Plan's release. This is the first time these drawings have collectively appeared on display in Nashville.

During the process that created the plan, consensus emerged involving Ten Principles to guide public policy, development practice, urban planning, and design. They are:

1. Respect Nashville's natural and built environment.

2. Treat the Cumberland River as central to Nashville's identity -- an asset to be treasured and enjoyed.

3. Reestablish the streets as the principal public space of community and connectivity.

4. Develop a convenient and efficient transportation infrastructure.

5. Provide for a comprehensive, interconnected greenway and park system.

6. Develop an economically viable downtown district as the heart of the region.

7. Raise the quality of the public realm with civic structures and spaces.

8. Integrate public art into the design of the city, its buildings, public works and parks.

9. Strengthen the unique identity of neighborhoods.

10. Infuse visual order into the city by strengthening sightlines to and from civic landmarks and natural features.