Nashville’s Bold New Vision for Juvenile Justice

By Kat Balster

Until recently, youth in crisis in Nashville and Davidson County, Tenn., faced a system that could no longer support their needs. The area’s aging juvenile facility, which opened in 1994, offered limited pre-trial housing and was misaligned with the city’s goals of rehabilitation and holistic well-being. As the need for services had grown over the years, many agencies and programs were displaced to make room for housing or courtroom expansion, which diluted the impact of services meant to support youth and families.

Subsequently, lead juvenile Judge Sheila Calloway and Sheriff Daron Hall took initial action by ensuring that youth convicted in adult court would still be housed separately from adults until age 18. Though this was a foundational reform, it still added additional pressure to a housing system that was already strained.

The resulting master plans for the new facility called for a doubling of square footage to meet the county’s projected needs. The proposed plan was a campus-style facility that would meet the needs of the youth and their families within the community, including all programming, housing, courts and other services.

The resulting Nashville Youth Campus for Empowerment (NYCE) is a realization of that vision and a statement of values on how a city should treat its most vulnerable youth.

“We are immensely thankful to Mayor Jon Cooper and the Metropolitan Council for prioritizing this project that will benefit the families and youth in Nashville and Davidson County for years to come,” said Judge Calloway.

The movement truly began in 2016, when local leaders (including Judge Calloway) began to re-evaluate how they were serving the youth population.

“Trauma significantly impacts development, which is why justice reform and thoughtful design are crucial partners in this initiative,” said Todd Orr, AIA, principal and senior architect with DLR Group, the project’s designer.

Designing for Healing, Not Punishment

Behind the design of NYCE is the philosophy that the environment can be a tool to heal. DLR Group and Smith Gee Studio partnered to create a campus that regulates and normalizes residents’ experiences.

“To help justice-involved youth manage emotional dysregulation, we designed calming, biophilic environments based on trauma-informed principles,” said Jose Jordan, principal and interiors leader at DLR Group. “Nature-inspired materials like stone and wood and cool colors create a more natural, less institutional feel.”

Chris Getz, AIA, principal and justice + civic leader at DLR Group, shared how community input shaped the result: “The students [we spoke to] were very clear: no brick. They didn’t want the campus to feel like a single, monolithic building. They wanted it to reflect the community, to feel human in scale and grounded in place.”

The campus is laid out to distinguish different elements of the program. A Respite and Assessment Center, which focuses on crisis care for youth that may have nowhere else to go, is on the opposite end of the campus from the housing cottages, which house pre-trial detention.

“When we first sketched this vision on a napkin in 2017, we imagined a place where accountability and hope could share the same address,” said Judge Calloway. “On this 14-acre campus, NYCE turns that dream into brick, glass and opportunity for every young person we serve.”

“The overarching goal is to reinforce family and community connections with the support of allied services,” said Orr

Construction in Context

From a construction standpoint, the NYCE project is ambitious in both its scale and complexity. The project has evolved from a single-building concept into a four-building campus that includes a five-story courthouse, a multi-story parking structure and multiple low-rise housing and services buildings.

“We walked the site with blueprints in one hand and case files in the other, asking practical questions: Where will a parent park? How fast can a counselor reach a child in crisis?”’ said Court Administrator Jennifer Wade. “Those answers shaped a campus that works like a 24/7 support network, not a siloed courthouse.”

“The construction team faced many challenges, including the site’s topography and geology.

“We faced a tight construction timeline, the pursuit of LEED Gold certification and the challenge of beginning construction before the completion of design,” said Rick Bruining, justice director at Bell Construction, the project’s general contractor. “With the design incorporating a basement level and underground parking, our team spent months blasting through rock and moving direct in order to start construction.”

Despite challenges, a horizontal layout and a more expansive site gave the project many logistical advantages.

“We were able to lease two-and-a-half acres next to the project site,” said Bruining. “That created room for the project to breathe ¾ space to stage materials and office trailers, and space to provide parking for staff and workforce.”

Cost-effective materials were selected for durability and efficiency within the housing units, as well as their ability to help support a normalized, less institutional environment.

“This facility will not resemble a traditional housing facility,” said Bruining. “It’s softer, but it’s still very robust and has all the [necessary] security, you just don’t see it or feel it.”

Learn more about the project, which is anticipated to open in 2027, and see more images in the Regional Issue of Correctional News.