The Smith Springs Community Center is a celebration of the South Nashville community while responding to their need for a central location for active engagement. To accommodate the growth and development of Smith Springs, an existing farm shapes the overall concept of the building and site. The Community Center is centrally located, perched atop the sloping site, and projects out through a line of existing trees. The Center acts as a beacon with its orientation over the main field and towards the entry to the park.

Adjacent to the heavily traveled Smith Springs Road, not far from Percy Priest Lake, the new 30,750 square foot building is conceptually divided into two parts: the barn (bar) and its supporting building (box). The bar, angled towards the field, is connected to the box with a double height lobby that also holds administration offices and small gathering spaces. The Bar serves as the home for the fitness gym, movement studio, three multipurpose rooms, and teaching kitchen while the box holds the gymnasium, indoor running track, and 3-lane pool.

In an effort to employ the local vernacular and preserve the site's existing integrity as an arboretum, the Community Center is clad in standing seam metal panel familiar to many rural farm house/ storage buildings of the 20th century. The stark rich charcoal color is intended to provide an obvious departure from old to new. The slanted roof refers to the vernacular rural barn, while the dormer projects out over the entry with punched openings existing only as needed for the enclosed multipurpose spaces. The interior walls are finished in a combination of black /white/ and grey tones with elements clad in plywood, a material chosen in response to the need for a durable, economical, readily available product that would also contribute to the overall low-maintenance of the building.