Title: Bento
Location of Proejct: Nashville, TN
Project Completion Date: December 2019
Firm Name: EOA Architects

Short Description: BentoLiving is designed for people on the go who value experience over ownership who live, work, and play in multiple locations throughout the year. The flex-stay residences offer intentional amenities and authentic neighborhood experiences. BentoLiving targets up and coming opportunity zones, including infill city neighborhoods, with the goal to integrate into areas with character and convenient existing access to citywide amenities. Nicknamed “the triangular site only an architect could love”, the Western property line runs parallel to a rail line, drops 30’ across edges and is .9 acre. The parking is achieved with a 95 bay, 5-story automated parking structure.

Architect's Statement: BentoLiving is designed for people on the go who value experience over ownership who live, work, and play in multiple locations throughout the year. The flex-stay residences offer boutique amenities and authentic neighborhood experiences. BentoLiving targets up and coming opportunity zones, including infill city neighborhoods, with the goal to integrate into areas with character and convenient existing access to citywide amenities. The focus is on the neighborhood by partnering with local residents, community groups, landholders, and governmental entities to improve the quality of neighborhood living for all. The goal is to size, proportion, and program space based on a person’s or business’ needs and budget, not the other way around. The Chestnut Hill Neighborhood was selected due to its industrial roots and proximity to downtown Nashville. The local residents and stakeholders were integral partners who helped to shape the look, feel and products used in the design.

BentoLiving Nashville is located in the industrial Chestnut Hill neighborhood just south of downtown. Nicknamed “the site only an architect could love”, the triangular site’s Western property line runs parallel to a CSX rail line, drops approximately 30’ across the edges and is smaller than one acre. The draw was the location. Just south of a linear public park such that the site offered unparalleled views of the Nashville skyline it was the perfect site to stand out and to blend in.

Through clever stacking and efficient unit layout, the five and six-story massing houses 89 units (including 23-flex-stay rental apartments and 66 hotel rooms), 4,000 square feet of entrepreneurial retail and a 5,500 square foot restaurant. Building upon the downtown views, Bento operates an event space and “the Chestnut” – a rooftop lounge at the intersection of the rail line, the public park, and the major corridor, 4th Avenue South. Unit types include 2-bedroom, 1-bedroom, studios, micro-units, and “co-living” spaces (5 bedrooms/5-bathrooms with shared kitchen and living areas).

The roots of Bento come from its beginnings as a Brooklyn furniture company focused on modular approaches to construction. The façade of the flagship BentoLiving design reflects this modularity, as well as connects to the industrial neighborhood through pulling the steel structure to the exterior like an exoskeleton to express the “unit bays” much like the sub-dividers within a Bento Box, but designed for living.

The massing starts with an efficient white stucco box maximizing room views along the two street edges. The second move is the exposed steel structure along the north façade facing downtown which is pulled the exterior defining the structural bays, while the orange Bento ribbon threads through the rectilinear composition culminating at the “arrowhead” at the tallest and most prominent corner at the railroad intersection. Taking advantage of the drop in grade, the automatic parking structure nests along the western edge against the CSX line.

The parking for the project is achieved with a 95 bay, 5-story automated parking structure, the first of its kind in the state of Tennessee. The parking structure parallels the rail line, providing a unique backdrop for South-facing units and an acoustical buffer from the train cars rolling through.

Bento’s modular products and services embrace the needs of their customers and local communities, solving real-world challenges simply and practically. BentoBuild, a sister company of BentoLiving, created modular products and approaches to construction that integrated into the development model allowing delivery of the project rapidly and affordably. From Bento: “We take a simple and considered approach to design in order to deliver a high value-per-square-foot product. We believe in designing for the use case and consider how those use cases will shift over time. We design a place for everything while still leaving room for personalization. The art of Bento Living - We believe simplification is the key to a creative life. We reimagine the ecology, community, and economy of purposeful and conscious living.”