Cyril Stewart is the principal of Cyril Stewart, LLC, a multi-faceted consulting firm specializing in architecture, project and community planning, historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and facility and organizational planning. Drawing on his forty years of experience in varied fields, he works with clients to create efficient, productive, and delightful spaces. His experience includes extensive involvement in community and urban planning initiatives. He led the American Institute of Architects “AIA 150” program to create visions for middle-Tennessee communities in Springfield, Lebanon, and Kingston Springs. His leadership with the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County has focused on reclamation of historic structures for new and exciting purposes including the Franklin Theatre and the Old, Old Jail – Center for Historic Preservation. His contributions to the Nashville Civic Design Center have included numerous juries of urban planning projects and leading one of the teams that led to The Plan of Nashville: Avenues to a Great City. He serves on the Urban Land Institute Building Healthy Places Committee and served on the AIA national Design Health Leadership Committee which focuses on creation of livable, connected communities and the physical, social, emotional health benefits of well-designed communities. He is a commissioner with the Nashville Historic Planning Commission. He serves on the City of Franklin’s Infill Study Group with the purpose of recommending policies and regulations for future infill development. He is on the board of directors of the Nashville Civic Design Center, past president of the Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Institute of Architects, former member of the American Institute of Architects national board, past president of Rebuilding Together Nashville, and is the immediate past Chairman of the Congregation at Woodmont Christian Church.
Cyril has a passion for historic preservation and creating delightful places. He served for six years on the board of the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Middle Tennessee, with the last three as president. During that time and the following two and a half years he was the owner’s representative for the restoration of the Franklin Theatre and for the purchase and transformation of the “Old, Old, Jail”, a vacant 1942 county jail, into “the Big House for Historic Preservation”.
Prior to Cyril Stewart, LLC, he was the Director of Facility Planning at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He oversaw the planning, programming and space management for this 1,000 bed, twelve million square foot academic medical center and worked with governmental officials and community groups on hundreds of projects.
During Cyril’s time at Vanderbilt the campus grew from 2.6 million square feet and 590 beds on one campus to a distributed medical center of 12,000,000 square feet on over two dozen sites. His major projects included the 500,000 square foot Vanderbilt Clinic, the 78,000 square foot award winning Eskind Biomedical Library, the 114 bed critical care tower, the expansion of a second 450,000 square foot campus at 100 Oaks, planning, due diligence and acquisition of a site for a third campus for surgery and medical offices, and numerous other buildings and renovations.
He was the champion of expanding the campus to area office buildings and campuses located in surrounding communities. Most notable among these is the 56 acre One Hundred Oaks campus. He led a master plan for the initial 850,000 square feet mall to ultimately grow to a 4.5 million square foot fully integrated mixed-use campus.
Prior to joining Vanderbilt he practiced health care, commercial, institutional, recreational, retail and residential architecture. He was the owner’s representative for construction and management of commercial office buildings in Nashville, Tennessee. He was Vice President and Development Manager for Laing Property’s development of Brentwood Commons, a 76-acre office park in Nashville and for development of joint ventures throughout a six- state region.
Mr. Stewart’s professional memberships have included the American Institute of Architects (with service on the national board of directors, 2010-2013), the Middle-Tennessee Chapter AIA, the Society for College and University Planning, the American Association of Medical Colleges, the Urban Land Institute, the Downtown Nashville Rotary, Leadership Middle Tennessee and the Nashville Civic Design Center. He was the president of the Middle-Tennessee Chapter AIA in 2004 and served as the middle-Tennessee AIA 150, Blueprint for America Champion where he led community planning workshops.
He holds bachelors degrees in English and Architecture from the University of Tennessee and is a registered architect in Tennessee.