Nashville, TN
The Frist Art Museum (FAM) opened in 2001 in Nashville's former main post office—a landmark Art Deco building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Faced in white Georgia marble with an Art Deco interior of cast aluminum and colored stone, the building was renovated and adapted into a museum with flexible gallery spaces. FAM is a noncollecting museum dedicated to presenting and originating high-quality exhibitions with related educational programs and community outreach activities. FAM presents more than ten exhibitions annually to an average of nearly 200,000 visitors.
FAM's building was renovated for the museum's opening in 2001. An ASHRAE Level II energy audit supported by a FCI 2024 Scoping Grant identified significant opportunities for energy savings; a subsequent 2025 FCI Implementation Grant funded the testing of vacuum insulated glass (VIG) units in the museum's historic steel-frame windows. This work provides a model for energy-efficient window renovations in historic buildings.
A 2026 FCI Implementation Grant will support installation of a new machine-learning building management system on three art-zone air handlers. The system dynamically regulates gallery climate conditions while meeting conservation specifications for artworks. The system is expected to reduce annual carbon emissions by approximately 13 percent with a two-year payback period, advancing the museum's commitment to sustainability.