A Nashville Designer Accidentally Built a Wellness Compound

Bob Butler bought land in Fairview, Tennessee, to use as a playground for his architectural ideas. He ended up with a serene retreat—including a new house for himself.

Jul 9, 2024 - 15:51

A Nashville Designer Accidentally Built a Wellness Compound

Bob Butler bought land in Fairview, Tennessee, to use as a playground for his architectural ideas. He ended up with a serene retreat—including a new house for himself.

The road to Fairview, Tennessee, from Nashville is a quiet one, curving through forests and farmland, the cacophony of Music City dissolving into birdsong threading the air. Off one of these gravelly roads, tucked out of sight, sits a 60-acre compound built by Bob Butler, an architectural designer and founder of the design company Profile + Principle in Nashville. What was initially meant to be a place to explore architectural concepts has become a mixed-use compound that includes Snow, a micro, wellness-oriented retreat, and Adelaide, a midcentury-inspired home that he shares with his partner, Melody Geer, and their two dogs, three cats, and two horses.

A complex created by designer Bob Butler on 60 rural acres in Fairview, Tennessee, includes a cabin, a renovated farmhouse, a tree house, and a home for Bob and his partner, Melody Geer. The sprawling property is just what the couple sought—an antidote to their busy lives in Nashville.

Having grown up in the bush in Australia, Bob wanted to buy an expanse of land to revisit his roots. And so, in 2019, after building a home in East Nashville—one that was also featured in Dwell—his business thriving and Melody by his side, Bob decided it was time to find property to escape the bustle of city life and use as a "playground" for his architectural ideas. He wanted a varied landscape with rolling hills and some kind of water.

The simplified post-and-beam construction reflects Bob’s penchant for economy.

He and Melody found all of that in the first property they visited, which had a lilting hill, gurgling creek, natural springs, and fields for horses. In May, the 50-acre plot of two adjacent properties officially became his. (An additional, 10-acre segment was added a year later.)