The Nashville Public Library is a magnificent building located downtown, only two blocks from William Strickland’s Tennessee State Capitol. Designed by the office of Robert A. M. Stern (Jeffery Povero, senior designer, Paul Zembsch, project manager) to echo the classical spirit of Strickland’s Capitol, the Library enhances the civic grandeur of Nashville.

The Bloomer Studio’s eight ornamental panels are located on the front façade of the Library, forty feet from the ground. Inspired by the flat-pattern drawings of 19th Century Beaux-Arts students who pictured ornament from the ancient temple of Jupiter, the frieze is an adaptation of the classical foliated scroll motif. The piece is fabricated of individually cast aluminum elements bolted to a flat plate. The playful leaves, flowers, and spirals in the frieze pick up light and shadow to activate the wall with rhythm and figuration. The frieze is a good illustration of the studio’s natural penchant for fusing traditional ornament design with contemporary materials to provide meaning and beauty to new architectural settings.