ELLE Decor
By Bebe Howorth
Soho House is making its mark in the Music City. Last week, the international members-only club unveiled its newest location in Nashville, building on its roster of 32 locations around the globe.
The Nashville house—with a hotel, restaurant, fitness club, and multiple music venues, it’s one of the largest clubs yet—is built in a former sock factory in the city’s Wedgewood Houston neighborhood. This isn’t the brand’s first foray into locations with surprising histories; its Berlin house was once home to the Communist Party headquarters, and its Chicago House had been the site of a belt company. “We never go into this thinking we’ll do this or that,” Soho House founder Nick Jones says. “We always go in with a fresh piece of paper.”
In the case of the Nashville location, that included emphasizing the building’s industrial bones, drawing on the city’s music heritage, and celebrating area artists. The interiors were designed by the club’s internal team, which opted to play up the building’s lofty spaces (think exposed brick and rough-hewn timber beams) while incorporating plenty of the club’s signature luxe touches.
As would be expected, local music was a significant influence in the design of the new space. The house includes three separate indoor/outdoor performance areas (more than any other house yet) with the intention of allowing members the opportunity to make impromptu performances.
“Nashville is a great city,” Jones says, “and we now have to be good to it.”