Author Alice Meriwether Bowsher

“Architecture and landscape design…can give a community clarity, coherence, and order, as well as beauty and delight, and can help define a community’s identity and values. We can celebrate places that nurture our living together.”

Author Alice Meriwether Bowsher, Community in Alabama

Garlan Gudger

“Someone else can use these things again, I feel like I’m giving them back their purpose.”

Garlan Gudger, referring to doorknobs

Al Head

“Good design, smart planning, creative place-making are all pillars of progressive growth that occurs as part of creative problem solving, taking advantage of opportunities and having an elevated vision for the present and future.”

Al Head, retired Executive Director of the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Alabama Native

Frank Setzer

“Great cities have great parks!”

Frank Setzer, architect and Auburn University Professor

Wernher von Braun, engineer

“For me, the idea of a creation is not conceivable without invoking the necessity of design. One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all.”

Wernher von Braun, engineer

Paul Rudolph, Architect of the Tuskegee Chapel

“Everyone in his own way is affected by his environment. The chords that are struck in people are not necessarily the ones which the architect anticipates. It seems to me the better the building, the more variety of chords that are struck.”

Paul Rudolph, Architect of the Tuskegee Chapel

Sam Mockbee

“What is important is using ones talents and intellect and energy in order to gain an appreciation and affection for people and place.”

Sam Mockbee, Architect and Rural Studio Founder

Ken Groves

“The nice thing about this kind of plan is you can show something that’s easy to follow. Its very real stuff. And its not just for big public project but for developments large or small. There’s more flexibility and that mean more value for property.”

Ken Groves, City Planner

Heidi Elnora

“I love every nook and cranny of the building, and during the restoration I was here every single day in a hard hat with the contractors,” recalls the Alabama native. “I could envision what it could be. I didn’t want to break land and create something new. I wanted old bones.”

Heidi Elnora, fashion designer and Alabama Native

Bobby McAlpine, Architect and Author

“Everything that becomes mature and becomes heritable is subtle … it takes a real strong and smart appetite to try to develop what’s going to last.”

Bobby McAlpine, Architect and Author

Cheryl Morgan

“I remain in my own designs a minimalist and believe in trying to do the most with the least-simple, and one hopes, elegant design.”

Cheryl Morgan, FAIA, Architect and Professor, Auburn University

Philip Morris

“We want good design in Alabama to be like breathing, a natural part of living and doing things”

Philip Morris, Writer, Editor and Design Enthusiast