The Joseph, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Nashville ★★★★★

A Downtown Tower Built Around a Thousand Pieces of Art

The Joseph rises 21 stories in Nashville’s SoBro district, a short walk from Music City Center and the Nashville Symphony, in a building designed by the Miami firm Arquitectonica. What sets it apart from the handful of other glass towers nearby is what fills it: more than 1,000 works from the Pizzuti Collection, assembled by the Pizzuti family of Columbus, Ohio, who developed the hotel and named it for family patriarch Joseph Pizzuti. A Hank Willis Thomas sculpture greets arrivals at the porte cochère, and a Misha Kahn chandelier hangs over the lobby bar, two signals that this is a hotel built around a serious private collection rather than a few framed prints chosen to match the carpet. The effect starts in the porte cochère and carries through to the guest-room corridors, where rotating pieces keep the experience from feeling static even for a guest who stays more than once.

Why It Works

We selected The Joseph because its design commitment runs deeper than a lobby installation. The Tennessee Collection, a body of work curated exclusively for the property, extends the art program beyond the Pizzuti holdings into pieces made specifically for these walls, and the copper, oak, and warm marble finishes throughout the public spaces carry the same attention into the architecture itself. Guests looking for a design-forward stay in a city still better known for its honky-tonks than its galleries will find the balance here unusually well handled.

Why This Location

SoBro puts the hotel within walking distance of Music City Center, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Symphony’s Schermerhorn Center, while keeping enough distance from lower Broadway that the noise of the entertainment district doesn’t carry. It is a practical base for a conference stay or a symphony weekend, and still close enough to Broadway’s honky-tonks for an evening out without needing a car.

Fast Facts

• Price: €€€€

• Vibe: art-filled, architectural, downtown luxury

• Chambres: 297 rooms, including 32 suites

• Best For: design-minded travelers, conference guests, special-occasion stays

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the Misha Kahn chandelier over the lobby bar

• Dining: Yolan (Tony Mantuano’s Italian restaurant), Denim (rooftop lounge), Lobby Lounge

• Amenities: Rose Spa (5,500 sq ft), rooftop pool, fitness center, business center

• Attractions: Music City Center, Country Music Hall of Fame, Schermerhorn Symphony Center

A Collection Built to Be Walked Through

The art at The Joseph isn’t confined to a single gallery wall. Pieces from the Pizzuti Collection appear throughout the public spaces and corridors, spanning local, regional, and international artists, and the hotel treats the collection as a reason to linger rather than a backdrop to rush past on the way to the elevator. The Presidential Suite carries the theme further, with a restored 1920s Steinway baby grand piano and a five-fixture marble bathroom that make it one of the more distinctive high-end suites in the city, not just in square footage but in what fills the room.

Yolan, Denim, and a Spa Built for Lingering

Yolan, the hotel’s signature restaurant, is run by James Beard Award winner Tony Mantuano and built around house-made pastas and a wine cellar stocked with more than 600 bottles, giving the hotel a dining reputation independent of its art collection. Denim, the all-day rooftop lounge, adds wood-fired pizzas and skyline views for a more casual register, while the Lobby Lounge covers espresso and pastries for guests passing through. The Rose Spa rounds out the offering at 5,500 square feet, with six treatment rooms, Biologique Recherche treatments, and steam rooms built around ice fountains, enough of a wellness program to anchor a stay on its own rather than serve as an afterthought to the rooms upstairs. The adjacent fitness center overlooks the downtown skyline, rounding out a wellness offering built to reward a slow morning as much as a late checkout.