Nashville, Tenn. – Nashville is set to unveil a new State Capitol Visitors Center as part of a larger renovation project of the War Memorial Building and Legislative Plaza, scheduled for completion in 2027.
The ambitious project comes with a price tag of around $182 million paid from state tax dollars.
“We’re recreating the entrance of the building,” said Director of Special Projects Peter Heimbach, who is coordinating the Capitol project. “It’ll be much easier to find, it’ll be a much more public-fronted building…it’s intended to be a much more open, much more welcoming facility.”
Coming through the front doors of the new facility, visitors may expect an entrance to the Tennessee State Military Museum from within the main lobby, a Visitors Center gallery, and a gift shop.
Director Heimbach compared the incoming facility to the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.
“When you come into the lobby space, you can sign up with the museum to take a tour, or you can go through the Visitors Center gallery and understand from that building how the Capitol operates. It’s got elements in the exhibits of both how the Capitol operates and the history of the Capitol as a building, and how the Capitol functions as an entity of state government.”
As it now operates, the Capitol only features an information desk upon entering the building, but it has never been presented to the public as a proper visitor’s center.
Capitol Visitors Center Renderings provided by EOA Architects + Centric Architecture from the Tennessee State Museum website, https://tnmuseum.org/Stories/posts/looking-back-and-looking-forward-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-war-memorial-building 
Capitol Visitors Center Renderings provided by EOA Architects + Centric Architecture from the Tennessee State Museum website, https://tnmuseum.org/Stories/posts/looking-back-and-looking-forward-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-war-memorial-building
The project is a partnership with the State of Tennessee, the Tennessee Department of General Services, the Tennessee State Museum, EOA Architects, Centric Architecture, Inc., and others. It will bring War Memorial Building and its campus into its “next century of civic service and engagement” as a memorial to Tennesseans according to the Tennessee State Museum’s website.
The new State Capitol Visitors Center comes more than 100 years after the War Memorial Building was first constructed in Nashville. The new facility and accompanying exhibits are set to welcome both tourists and residents by the thousands.
This story is part of week long news coverage of the TN General Assembly by the UT-Chattanooga PULSE Project.
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