Just as music has been essential to bringing back downtown Nashville, so has the Music City Center, the 2.1 million-square-foot convention center that opened in 2013 adjacent to Bridgestone Arena and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The $623 million center sports a striking design by architect Tvsdesign and has developed a reputation for its environmentally friendly features including a “green” roof, four acres of rolling Tennessee hills atop the center with plants that help insulate the convention spaces beneath. In a region with plenty of competition for events, the center continues to bring visitors and business to Nashville; it was so busy in April, President and CEO Charles Starks said in a statement at the time, that it had no space for events when the NFL brought the 2019 draft to town that month.