“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
“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
Simplicity is often best in graphic design. That certainly proved true with an ad campaign for the Birmingham Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. In 2007, Big Communications decided to capitalize on the name of the city itself, the “IN” in the word Birmingham. Those two letters boxed in red became the campaign’s logo. A public relations campaign was then launched to discover all the “IN” places in Birmingham. This got the community involved and generated a lot of pride. Big Communication’s ad campaign was a win-win for Birmingham and an example of how the simplest ideas are often the most effective.
Photo Credit: Big Communications & Birmingham Convention and Visitor’s Bureau
Discovering the best Alabama has to offer takes time, effort and a bit of luck. Word-of-mouth or coming across a magazine article will provide information, but chances are you’ll never be aware of everything to see and do that’s great in the state. With DesignAlabama’s ConnectLivity, all the work is done. A 12-pack of destination itineraries with maps is available or one can select a coffee table book with all 12 itineraries plus information about each destination. Each itinerary has a different theme such as arts, architecture, crafts, Civil Rights and family fun, and each contains helpful tips. All you need to hit the road and experience Alabama to the fullest.
Photo Credit: Copperwing Design
“We demand the very best from our clients!” This quote, a manifesto for art over commerce, is from letterpress printer and bookmaker Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., the subject of the documentary film “Proceed and Be Bold.” Kennedy calls himself “a humble Negro printer” whose work conveys a fierce sense of social justice. Cliff Meador, head of the master’s program in book arts at Columbia College in Chicago, calls Kennedy’s posters “beautiful, provocative and powerful… ” His graphic design uses bold blocks of text over layers of pale transparent imagery. His messages reflecting African-American history include “Rosa Louise Parks 1913-2005” and “We who believe in freedom cannot rest.” Formerly based in Gordo in Pickens County, Kennedy has relocated to Detroit.
Photo Credit: mnbookarts.org
Bib & Tucker Sew-Op in Birmingham is keeping the longtime tradition of the sewing circle alive. Its mission is to provide a place for people to come together who want to sew in the role of either teacher or student. Founded by Annie Bryant and Lillis Taylor, Bib & Tucker Sew-Op has developed a sewing-based cottage industry to provide income and flexible working conditions for women who head their households. Several programs and workshops are offered, including youth programs. A nonprofit organization, Bib & Tucker is funded through grants and charitable contributions.
Photo Credit: Bib & Tucker Sew-Op
In her studio adapted from a 100-year-old shotgun house in Birmingham, Becky Stayner handcrafts leather goods that are “soft and buttery like a fresh hot biscuit.” Hence the name Biscuit Leather Company, where leather is cut, punched, stitched and finished by hand to create bags, totes, clutches, belts and other artisan leather goods. These are simple, one-of-a-kind creations that improve with age. Country Living magazine placed the Biscuit Leather Company at No. 9 in its 2018 “The Country’s Most Creative” list.
Photo Credit: Biscuit Leather Company
For years considered the “face of industrial design in Alabama,” Bessemer native Howard Garrett graduated with a degree in industrial design from Auburn University in 1950 and then worked in the store planning and fixture industry. In 1960, the World War II Army veteran founded Howard Garrett & Associates Inc., which provided store, product and fixture design services to the national retail market. The firm evolved in 1981 into HGA Products, which provided total store interior design services to global clients such as Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and all of the custom store case work for Tiffany worldwide.
Photo Credit: Howard Garrett
Part of Birmingham’s flourishing beer scene is Steel City Taps, a design and production company started by Auburn University 2013 industrial design graduate and Alabama native Brad Lugar. The company’s main focus is the design and production of custom, hand-painted tap handles, along with branding and promotional materials with all products made in-house. Steel City has created taps for a number of breweries nationwide. The company is also working with several microbrewers to help with their marketing and branding needs through the use of keg collars, stickers, web pages and other means.
Photo Credit : Brad Lugar
Designed by Williams Blackstock Architects in association with CannonDesign, the UAB Campus Recreation Center is a 152,000-square-foot facility that serves as a hub promoting health and fitness. A main feature is the interior jogging track, which runs throughout the building giving joggers views of the campus, as well as the city to the south and the mountains beyond. All of the activities taking place inside are on display, thanks to the large expanse of exterior glass. The $22 million project received several awards including the 2007 Honor Award, Institutional from Birmingham Chapter, AIA.
Photo Credit: Williams Blackstock Architects
It’s been proven: well designed schools improve learning and that’s the case with Homewood Middle School. Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio designed the school to connect to its surrounding community and as a standard for environmental sustainability. One entrance is for automobiles and another is a pedestrian bridge that connects the school to the downtown. In 2005, the building became the nation’s first middle school to receive LEED® Silver certification, accomplished under budget and completed six months earlier than scheduled. The project received the LEED® Silver Certification/USGBC Merit Award/AIA.
Photo Credit: GA Studio
Architects Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are synonymous with New Urbanism, having made their mark planning new communities and revitalizing existing ones across America, including Mt Laurel southeast of downtown Birmingham. Mt Laurel is built on a 460-acre wooded parcel with varied typography. The community is divided into three neighborhoods, each a five-minute walk from the edge to the town center. Residents enjoy green spaces, wide sidewalks, hiking trails and free-standing craftsman-style houses. Other traditional building types include small apartment buildings and row-houses with shops below.
Photo Credit: Rip Weaver
Eighteenth Street South is a traditional main street shopping district in Homewood, a bustling Birmingham suburb incorporated in 1926. A key characteristic is “The Curve,” part of downtown Homewood’s identity but also a traffic problem. The 1992 revitalization plan by KPS Group, Inc preserved The Curve while creating a more pedestrian-friendly outdoor space and improving traffic flow. Other improvements include streetscaping, landscaping and a sign ordinance. The plan was recognized with an Alabama Council AIA Award. The district has been described as being “big on personality.”
Photo Credit: Homewood Chamber of Commerce
Before the wide use of railroads, Gainesville thrived as a vital cotton shipping port. It grew so rapidly that by 1840 it had become Alabama’s third largest town. Its bygone role as a bustling inland port is reflected in its two historic districts – the Gainesville Historic District and the Main-Yankee Street Historic District, which contains five contributing properties that predate the Civil War. Among the architectural styles that dominate the two districts are Federal, Greek-Revival and Queen Anne. Gainesville’s oldest building is the Gainesville Presbyterian Church, built in 1837.
Photo Credit: Alabama Historical Commission
Inside the historic Lyric and Alabama theaters in downtown Birmingham’s Theater District are ornate lobbies, stages and Wurlitzer organs. Both theaters were purchased by Birmingham Landmarks and restored to their former grandeur. Built in 1927, the Spanish-Moorish Alabama Theatre was designed to impress with elaborate marble, plaster and gold-leaf detailing, its décor suggesting exotic lands and cultures. The theater was one of Alabama’s first air conditioned buildings, so just imagine stepping inside on a hot day to watch a movie in a space that inspires awe and fantasy. The Alabama Theatre is now a 2,200-seat performing arts venue.
Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy
The wide overhanging roof of the new two-story Birmingham-Jefferson County transit hub soars over the street, providing shelter from the elements. The $30 million glass-enclosed intermodal station has a long waiting room and seats oriented outward so riders can watch the bus stop for their ride while sheltered by the overhanging roof. Designed by Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio and Hoskins Architecture, the contemporary modern complex has no ornamentation. Instead, everything speaks to the utilitarian aspect of the building. Materials are kept simple and in a neutral palate.
Photo Credit: GA Studio
The former Guaranty Federal Savings and Loan was housed not in one but two important examples of mid-20th century architecture in downtown Birmingham. The 1948 building designed by Warren, Knight and Davis architects featured an exterior clad in dark-green marble with mirrors, glass and photo-murals dominating the interior walls, along with black and red terrazzo floors. In 1960, the savings and loan’s four-story modern building was designed by Charles McCauley & Associates, a firm that designed many of Birmingham’s significant buildings. New City Church occupied this building from 1995-2010.
Photo Credit: Williams Blackstock Architects
Standing tall at the main entrance of Alabama Power’s early headquarters in Birmingham are three, 8-foot-high, carved-in-place limestone figures representing power, light and heat. Built in 1925, the 16-story Art Deco building was designed by Warren, Knight and Davis of Birmingham. Its limestone entrance portal facing 18th Street is heavily ornamented with stylized Corinthian capitals on the supporting piers. The building also features brick and tile ornamentation at the top and a peaked red tile roof. A 1951 west addition was designed by Birmingham architect Jack Bass Smith. In 1990, a massive complex was added to the north side with a glass atrium.
Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy
A delight for every kid at heart (and who isn’t?) is the Junior League of Birmingham-Hugh Kaul Children’s Zoo, a focal point of the Birmingham Zoo. The $15 million exhibit opened in 2005 to coincide with the zoo’s 50th birthday celebration. The children’s zoo features a stream with native fish, a petting zoo, a play area with “leaping fountains” and a hand-crafted carousel designed with 36 hand-carved mounts, each representing an endangered species. It is one of only 30 new carousels created in the world since 1933. The project was designed by Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio and Macknally Land Design.
Photo Credit: GA Studio
Birmingham lays claim to the largest urban park in the United States. It’s Red Mountain Park, developed on land long exploited by mining. The 1,200-acre park consists of more than 40 miles of trails with a 10-mile rail trail and a four-mile highline trail, a 45-acre commons, a 20-acre lake, reopened interpretive mines and recreation areas. The master plan was developed by the Philadelphia-based firm Wallace, Roberts, & Todd, who worked from a concept by Nimrod Long & Associates in Birmingham. When the park received the ASLA 2012 Honor Award, the jury noted that it is “brave to have something this bold that conveys the social and physical history of Birmingham. It transforms without obliterating.”
Photo Credit: Eddie Freyer
Alabama is home to the remains of one of the country’s largest prehistoric Native American settlements. Located along the Black Warrior River just south of Tuscaloosa, the site was once a flourishing ceremonial and political hub of Mississippian culture and occupied over three centuries until it was abandoned in the 16th century. Today, the Moundville Archeological Park contains the original site with its large earthen mounds arranged in an open plaza. Also part of the park is the Jones Archaeological Museum that displays over 200 artifacts. The park and museum are operated by the University of Alabama.
Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy
Reviews for the Chief Ladiga Trail, Alabama’s first rails-to-trails project, are overwhelmingly positive. “What a great way to see the Alabama countryside.” “A runners/walkers and cyclists delight.” The 33-mile trail stretches from the Alabama-Georgia state line to Anniston and passes through scenic landscape and towns. The Chief Ladiga Trail is on the same rail corridor as the Silver Comet Trail in Georgia. Plans are to join the two trails, creating a 90-mile corridor from just west of Atlanta to Anniston. Ideal for all skill levels, the Chief Ladiga Trail is accessible year-round and dogs are permitted on the trail but must be kept on leash.
Photo Credit: Goodwyn Mills and Cawood
Since 1992, the Forever Wild Land Trust has secured more than 255,000 acres of land in Alabama for public use. Its mission is to conserve, connect and care for land and water in Alabama. Since 2010, 100 miles of trails have been completed in Jefferson County. The master plan for the Red Rock Trail System proposes 750 miles of multi-use trails, parks, bike lanes and sidewalks. Once completed, the trail system will consist of seven corridors: Jones Valley and Valley Creek, Village Creek, Five Mile Creek, Shades Creek, Cahaba River, Turkey Creek and Northern Beltway. Current trail projects include the Vulcan Trail extension, the High Ore Line and the Five Mile Creek Greenway.
Photo Credit: Copperwing
The longest hiking trail in Alabama and Georgia is the Pinhoti National Recreation Trail, which stretches 171 miles across Alabama and another 166 miles in Georgia. Pinhoti Trail starts at Flagg Mountain near Weogufka, cuts through the Talladega National Forest and ends in Northeast Georgia at the Benton MacKaye Trail where it connects to the Appalachian Trail. This network provides a trail corridor from Alabama to Maine. Pinhoti Trail is also part of the 5,400 mile Eastern Continental Trail from Florida to Newfoundland, and the 1,800 mile Great Eastern Trail that runs west of the Appalachian Trail from Alabama to New York. “Pinhoti” derives from the Creek Indian word meaning “turkey home.”
Photo Credit: 1moremiletogo.wordpress.com
According to Guinness World Records, the nonprofit Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham contains the world’s largest collection of motorcycles. The museum is part of the Barber Motorsports Park, which also includes a racetrack that hosts motorcycle and car racing events. The grounds of the 740-acre park are a sight to see, with a quirky collection of giant sculptures in the infield of the track, such as spiders, Bigfoot and a woman in a pond with just her head and knees poking out of the water. Pedestrian bridges over the racetrack are also part of a recent expansion. Barber Motorsports Park was listed among CNN’s 2016 “16 intriguing things to see and do in the United States.”
Photo Credit: Wikipedia and Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum
Want a close-hand look at rock formation and a lesson in geologic history? If so, simply drive through the Red Mountain Cut, one of seven National Natural Landmarks in Alabama. “The Cut” was created by blasting through part of Red Mountain in the 1960s to extend the Red Mountain Expressway into downtown Birmingham. Due to high cost and time, engineers discarded a proposal to create a tunnel through the red ore and instead built the Red Mountain Expressway Cut, which exposes geological strata that spans millions of years.
Photo Credit: Internet
Ever been curious to try woodworking, welding, ceramics or screen printing, but lack workspace and tools? At MAKEbhm, everything is provided to give a creative pursuit a go. Classes are offered and space is provided in a collaborative environment. MAKEbhm is the pet project of architect Bruce Lanier and his wife Scottie, who renovated the former RAM tool warehouse in Avondale. Several ways to join: co-work and share office space, studio membership for shared equipment and materials, or a residency that provides space to store equipment and materials and a workplace for daily use. Space is also available for light manufacturing and product design.
Photo Credit: Bruce Lainer /Make Bhm
One of Birmingham’s most appealing characteristics is how nature coexists with the city. Seen from downtown Birmingham is the Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve, a 1,040-acre natural park on the northern ridge of Red Mountain. The park contains 14 miles of hiking trails with scenic overlooks, an abandoned limestone quarry and the surface ruins from an old iron ore mine. KPS Group developed the master plan for the nature preserve and designed its 5,800-square-foot Nature Center positioned at the tree tops. The building was awarded a gold certification under the U. S. Green Building Council’s LEED® program. Native animal species cared for at the center were injured and unable to exist in the wild.
Photo Credit: Exofficio.com
Birmingham’s first city plan in 1871 shows Linn Park as an open green space, designed when the intent was to make Birmingham the state capital. Though that never happened, Linn Park developed into the city’s primary civic space, flanked by Birmingham City Hall and Jefferson County Courthouse, with numerous monuments and memorials in-between. In 1982, Birmingham-based landscape architects Nimrod Long & Associates preserved and enhanced an earlier axial scheme with a new central fountain, pavements, benches, steps, low walls and a metal gazebo. Linn Park was the site of several protests during the Civil Rights movement.
Photo Credit: Linn Park
“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
Alabama’s thriving brewery scene gets creative with logos found on everything from beer bottle labels and taps to menus and signs. Back Forty in Gadsden has a different logo for each beer. Its Naked Pig Pale Ale logo depicts a smiling pig and its Truck Stop Honey Brown Ale’s logo is an open-24-hours truck stop sign. Back Forty’s Paw Paw’s Wheat Ale logo is a peach. Goat Island Brewing in Cullman uses a goat for its logo set against a black background with gold lettering. The logo for Straight to Ale in Huntsville is a stylized suggestion of a devil outlined in red. Beer logos offer the opportunity to be creative and a little outrageous.
Photo Credit: Good People Brewing Company/ Back Forty Beer Company
Alabama has many movie palaces remaining from their golden age during the early 20th century and one is in Talladega. Built in 1936, the Ritz Theatre is a fine example of Depression-era Art Deco theaters. In 1997, the landmark was restored, including its distinctive façade made of opaque structural glass, a common construction material used during the Art Deco period. This was a time when the architectural glass industry became especially creative and introduced a series of new glass products. The restoration successfully matched the pigmented structural glass known as vitrolite that needed to be replaced. Originally called Martin Theatre, The Ritz reopened in 1998 as a performing arts center.
Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy
When terracotta is used as a building material, it is typically used only for ornamentation such as an embellishment around windows and doors. The Isbell National Bank in Talladega is a rarity, having been constructed in 1869 entirely out of red-hued terracotta. The bank is believed to be one of only five remaining architectural terracotta buildings east of the Mississippi River. Merchant James Isbell founded the bank in 1848, making it the oldest continually operating bank in Alabama. It is now called the First Bank of Alabama.
Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy
Planned communities are common these days, but were a novel idea back in 1929 when local real estate businessman Robert Jemison Jr. developed the affluent Birmingham suburb of Mountain Brook. Noted Boston-based landscape architect Warren Manning was commissioned to create a naturalistic plan to integrate building sites and infrastructure into the wooded landscape to create a park-like setting. Built around three villages – English Village, Mountain Brook Village and Crestline Village – most of Mountain Brook’s development preserved the existing trees with 92 percent of the suburb under tree cover, considered to be among the highest ratios in the United States.
Photo Credit: Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce
Indian Springs School, a 350-acre, private boarding school founded in 1952 for grades eight through 12, was recently modernized for the 21st century. In 2012, ArchitectureWorks and Lake | Flato Architects partnered on Phase I, which consists of three new classroom buildings and a new administration building. The design maintains the original “open air” campus and new classrooms have exterior doors opening to an exterior covered walkway. New buildings are interconnected by walkways enhanced with rain gardens and runnels designed to collect and filter water toward the lake. The project won several awards, including the 2016 AIA Education Facility Design Awards.
Photo Credit: Architecture Works
Across from the Alabama Theatre is the Lyric Theatre, the Alabama Theatre’s older sibling, constructed in 1914 during vaudeville’s heyday before the arrival of silent movies. During its glory days in the late 1910s and early 1920s, the Lyric Theatre hosted major vaudeville touring shows. In later years the theater showed movies, primarily second-run releases. A primary design element in the opulent theater is a large mural called “The Allegory of the Muses.” The Lyric is the only surviving vaudeville theater in Birmingham. Now a performing arts venue, the renovated Lyric reopened in 2016 with a three-day vaudeville-style variety show.
Photo Credit: Stewart Perry
The focal point of the addition to Birmingham’s Temple Emanuel is a four-story glass atrium with a grand stair and projecting balconies. The atrium complements the original sanctuary building and highlights its arched stained glass window and terra cotta frieze. Designed by KPS Group, the project involved renovating the original 1912 neoclassical sanctuary, adding a parking deck and replacing an outdated ancillary building. A new chapel and social room were added on the ground floor of the existing building. KPS Group’s aim was to harmonize the new addition with the historic structure while not replicating it.
Photo credit: KPS Group
Ruffner Mountain Nature Center is the centerpiece of the 1,011-acre nature preserve in Birmingham and was designed by KPS Group to promote sustainability. The master plan for the 5,800-square-foot center includes animal exhibits, a store, meeting facilities and offices. KPS Group also created an educational program to explain the building’s LEED® Gold sustainable features, which include a green roof, daylighting of all spaces, highly efficient mechanical systems, recycled and renewable materials, and a cistern to harvest rainwater.
Photo Credit: Gary Knight
A long-vacant Sears department store in Birmingham was transformed into the headquarters for Innovation Depot, a non-profit business incubator for start-up companies. Williams Blackstock Architects turned the dilapidated structure into 120,000 square feet of office space, 20,000 square feet of laboratories, a copy center, conference rooms, café and bakery, training facilities, rooftop terrace and landscaped courtyards. The project also helped revitalize a blighted two-block area of downtown Birmingham. This adaptive reuse project won several awards, including the 2009 Preservation Award from the Birmingham Historical Society and the 2007 Honor Award, Renovation/Restoration from the Alabama Council, AIA.
Photo Credit: Wiliams Blackstock
Alabama boasts many claims to fame and one is Rickwood Field, the nation’s oldest professional baseball park. Built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by team owner Rick Woodward, it served as the home park for the Barons and the Birmingham Barons of the Negro League. Today, Rickwood Field provides fans a lesson in baseball history. Scenes from several movies have been filmed at the historic field, including “42” about the racial integration of American professional baseball by player Jackie Robinson. Friends of Rickwood have refurbished the grandstands, press box, locker rooms, roof and main entrance.
Photo Credit: Carol M. Highsmith
Sloss Furnaces was once the largest manufacturer of pig iron in the world and it represents Birmingham’s rich industrial heritage. The site remains just as it was in the late 19th century with its network of pipes and soaring stoves. Named for Colonel James Withers Sloss, a north Alabama merchant also involved in railroads, Sloss operated from 1882-1970, making it the longest continually running blast furnace in Birmingham’s history. Now a museum that consists of two 400-ton blast furnaces and 40 buildings, Sloss is the only 20th century blast furnace in the United States serving as an historic industrial site.
Photo Credit : Lewis Kennedy
Among Birmingham’s many attributes are its city parks and one of the most popular is Crestwood, referred to by a local as “a nice little park in a nice little neighborhood.” The 12.11-acre park includes a football field and pool, and in 2012 was treated to major renovation. A children’s tennis court was added, along with a new playground and walkways. The 2.56 million renovation led by architects Design Initiative, also included refurbishing existing buildings, new landscaping, seating and a new press box and irrigation system. The city purchased the property for Crestwood Park in 1946 for $6,100.
Photo Credit: Design Initiative
B.L. Harbert International, a construction company that builds U.S. embassies worldwide, built its new International Group Headquarters on a 12-acre campus in Birmingham. Designed by GA Studio, the headquarters consists of two buildings divided by Little Shades Creek and connected by a footbridge – a 38,000-square-foot, two-story office building and a building for logistics and quality control of equal size. The complex was constructed with many sustainability elements such as LED and sensory lighting, low-flow fixtures and water-conscious irrigation. Flags fly in front of the headquarters that represent the countries where the company is currently working.
Photo Credit : GA Studio
Dining at Spring House Restaurant in Russell Crossroads isn’t just about the expertly prepared food. It’s also about the idyllic setting and award-winning building designed by Jeffrey Dungan Architects. The restaurant suggests shutter porches, wood sheds, dog-trots and other farmhouse vernacular characteristics. Tall windows and exterior dining spaces provide views of the surrounding pastures, pine and hardwood forests, and in the distance, Lake Martin. Spring House received the 2011 AIA Birmingham chapter Commercial Merit Award and the 2013 Alabama Council AIA Honor Award.
Photo Credit: Spring House
Community-led revitalization is challenging work and Main Street Alabama makes it easier by offering towns the resources, technical services and educational offerings to help navigate downtown and commercial district management. Main Street Alabama was incorporated in 2010 and before that time the Alabama Historical Commission served as the state Main Street coordinating program, providing guidance, support, services and certification to communities. Main Street Alabama follows the nationwide Main Street model that has been successful in many states by using its proven method of leveraging local assets to create sustainable and comprehensive revitalization plans.
Photo credit: Main Street Alabama
Alabama is fortunate to have many organizations working to improve the quality of life in communities. Alabama Communities of Excellence (ACE) is one of these organizations. Founded in 2002, the nonprofit ACE partners with the private and public sectors as well as universities to help communities with a population of 2,000-18,000 achieve their goals in three phases. Phase 1 is assessment; Phase 2 involves leadership development and strategic planning; and Phase 3 implementation and comprehensive planning. After completion, communities get an ACE designation and are recognized by the Alabama League of Municipalities.
Photo credit: Alabama Communities of Excellence
Chefs and restauranteurs in Alabama and across the country love how their food looks on pottery created by Earthborn Pottery in Leeds. Started by master potter Tena Payne, the business has garnered national recognition and has received a number of honors. Her husband and their two children work in the business and in the Earthborn Studio, a team of potters create plates, bowls and platters, serving dishes, drinking vessels and signature items. Artists pay attention to every detail throughout the process from the clay to the glazes. Pottery workshops are also offered.
Photo credit: Hot and Hot plated
At the entrance of Birmingham’s Rotary Trail is a 46-foot-tall sign that reads: “Rotary Trail in the Magic City,” modeled after the historical “Birmingham the Magic City” sign. Rotary Trail (formerly called Line Park) is a pedestrian greenway constructed in 2014 in the railroad cut at the center of First Avenue between 20th and 24th Street South. The half-mile trail links two popular Birmingham attractions, Rail Road Park and Sloss Furnaces Historic Landmark. The trail is part of the expanding Red Rock Trail System that connects major destinations throughout the region including Red Mountain Park. The name comes from the city’s rotary club, one of the largest rotary clubs in the world.
Photo credit: Bill Segrest Courtesy of Goodwyn Mills and Cawood
Nineteen acres of unused spaced along the railroad tracks between downtown Birmingham and UAB were transformed into Rail Road Park, a popular site for many activities – from walking the Rail Trail that extends the length of the park to ice skating in winter. Walls and seating areas are constructed from bricks and objects unearthed on the site, including hand-cast bricks and original cobblestone. The park comprises 30 percent water with a lake, a rain curtain, a bio-filtration wetlands area and numerous ponds and streams. Rail Road Park won the 2012 Urban Land Institute’s Urban Open Space Award, beating out such parks as New York City’s exceedingly popular High Line.
Photo credit: MackNally Land Design
“I always wanted to be an inventor when I grew up,” says industrial designer Lloyd Cooper, who studied mechanical engineering and industrial design at Auburn University. As co-founder and principal of PUSH Product Design in Birmingham, Cooper – who currently holds 17 patents – has achieved his childhood dream and more. PUSH has provided full industrial design services for the past 20 years, taking on a range of challenges from advanced jet-skis to new medical technologies. Among PUSH’s diverse clients are Altec, Yamaha, Gibson, John Deer, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Photo credit: Lloyd Cooper
Alabama auto manufacturing keeps on rolling. Hyundai, Honda and Mercedes-Benz operate plants here and the number of automotive suppliers in Alabama that support those plants also grows. Mercedes Benz U.S. International in Tuscaloosa County produces 300,000 vehicles annually. In Talladega County, Honda Manufacturing of Alabama produces 340,000 vehicles and 340,000 engines every year. Hyundai Motor Manufacturing in Montgomery County produces 400,000 vehicles and 720,000 engines annually. In January 2018, Toyota and Mazda announced a joint venture to build an assembly plant in Limestone County with production of the Toyota Corolla and a new Mazda crossover expected to begin in 2021.
Photo credit: Montgomery Chamber of Commerce
“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
Thomas Jefferson’s plan for the University of Virginia was designed to represent “authority of nature and power of reason.” The design for the original University of Alabama is the old Quad that dates back to 1828 and was patterned after Jefferson’s University of Virginia plan. The Quad was destroyed during the Civil War and a new 22-acre Quad was built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Only five structures are built directly on the Quad, with the remainder taken up by trees and a great lawn. Business Insider magazine included UA’s Quad in its list of “The 16 Most Beautiful and Iconic American College Quads” in 2015.
Photo credit: KPS Group
Spirituality and symbolism are foremost in church design, and that was Krumdieck A+1 Design’s approach for a faith-based camp in Sterret. The chapel is open yet protected by an outstretched roof plane that cradles the space below. Water, a symbol of life, culminates at the foot of a wooden cross that dominates the chapel. An entry sequence begins along a path through the woods, and ascends with steps leading to the base of a cistern where rainwater is collected. Water flows through a trough passing under the stone floor, which steps down in three places and is revealed again in seven squares. The project won the 2009 AIA Birmingham chapter Honor Award.
Photo credit: Krumdieck A+1
A convergence of five streets sounds like a traffic nightmare, but in Birmingham’s historic Southside neighborhood it is an entertainment district showplace. Five Points South was settled in 1887 and by 1893 had developed into a streetcar subdivision. A public square marks the intersection of the five converging streets, the focus being the 1909 Highlands United Methodist Church and its fountain. The church is joined by a mix of new and old buildings, including sensitively restored structures such as the 1930 Mill Building and the 1926 Spanish Stores. A strong neighborhood organization, the Five Points Alliance (FPA), keeps the square vital and attractive; bustling with activity day and night.
Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy
Several neo-Gothic landmarks adjoin the modernist Birmingham Downtown YMCA designed by KPS Group, who approached the design by presenting a modern face to the street in contrast to the historic facades of the nearby architecture. The center was built in 1984 using reflective glass block, concrete and brick. The glass block subtly mirrors the older surrounding buildings. The building represents a turning point in the history of the Birmingham YMCA, as it marked the first time its membership was available to both men and women.
Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy
Public libraries should inspire and inform, and the Linn-Henley Research Library in Birmingham does just that. In the main reading room of the circa 1927 library designed by Miller & Martin Architects are murals depicting mythology from cultures around the world. Murals in the children’s section represent children’s literature from 16 countries, and include images of Lancelot, Pocahontas, Krishna, Don Quixote, Goldilocks and Confucius. Later renovations by KPS Group brought the building to current codes and interior elements were restored.
Photo credit: KPS
UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center was renovated in 2014 by Williams Blackstock Architects in association with Boston-based Payette Architects. An aim of the new design was to strengthen collaboration among researchers. A five-story, sky-lit atrium serves as the heart of the building with offices clustered around this central collaborative area. The typical maze of corridors and labs commonly found in older research buildings was converted into new research spaces organized around the atrium core. The project won the 2014 AIA Birmingham Merit Award and AIA Alabama Honor Award.
Photo credit: Williams Blackstock
During the Jim Crow era, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons (F&AM) of Alabama bustled as a social, cultural and business center for Birmingham’s African-American community. The seven-story temple is located in the city’s Fourth Avenue Historic District and was constructed in 1922. Designed by architects Leo Persley and Robert R. Taylor, the first accredited African-American architect and the first African-American student enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Taylor designed buildings at Tuskegee University, and its Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture & Construction is named in his honor.
Photo credit: unknown
Children’s Harbor Lodge was designed to provide a haven for sick children and their families in an inviting rural environment where their medical needs can be met. Designed by Giattina Aycock Architecture Studio, the retreat includes a town hall with classrooms, meeting rooms and offices and lodging for 24 families. The project was designed for the sloping, seven-acre wooded site and follows the planning principles of the Creek Indians, the area’s original settlers who lived near the water in dwellings that were both communal and private. Similarly, the residential cabins are arranged on each side of the swale in clusters that maximize privacy and also form common exterior space for recreation.
Photo credit: GA Studio
Communities across Alabama are thriving thanks to the ongoing efforts of DesignAlabama. Incorporated in 1987, the Montgomery-based nonprofit organization unites design professionals and citizens to create master plans for community development and downtown revitalization, along with supporting other organizations with similar goals. Programs include: Alabama Mayor’s Design Summit that brings together mayors to address their community design issues; DesignPlace in which professionals visit selected communities to offer assistance with design, planning and community identity; and Connectivity that provides itineraries for discovering Alabama’s people and places. Gina Clifford serves as executive director.
Photo credit: DesignAlabama
No better place for the metal arts than Birmingham’s Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark, the site of pig iron production for nearly 100 years. Sloss Metal Arts at Sloss Furnaces promotes iron-casting and related arts. The program also offers open studios and casting services, workshops; houses resident artists and apprentices; and provides demonstrations at schools, museums and festivals. Sloss Metal Arts also accepts commissions for public art installations. Or try your hand at iron pouring on Bowl-O-Rama night and create your own iron bowl.
Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy
Bib & Tucker Sew-Op in Birmingham is keeping the longtime tradition of the sewing circle alive. Its mission is to provide a place for people to come together who want to sew in the role of either teacher or student. Founded by Annie Bryant and Lillis Taylor, Bib & Tucker Sew-Op has developed a sewing-based cottage industry to provide income and flexible working conditions for women who head their households. Several programs and workshops are offered, including youth programs. A nonprofit organization, Bib & Tucker is funded through grants and charitable contributions.
Photo credit: Bib & Tucker Sew
Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is the largest golf course construction project ever attempted and the brainchild of David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, who in the 1980s came up with the idea as a way to diversify the assets of the state’s pension fund and boost state tourism. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was hired to design the courses because of his history designing top courses worldwide. Today, there are 26 golf courses on the trail on 11 sites across Alabama. The enormous trail project has been compared in complexity to the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Photo credit: Alabama Tourism Department
A fine example of Birmingham’s long and rich legacy of well-designed landscape architecture is Vulcan Park, built in the 1930s under the WPA. Kiwanis Centennial Park opened at Vulcan Park and Museum last year, making the Vulcan, which overlooks Birmingham from atop Red Mountain, more accessible to visitors. The north side of Vulcan Park now features a new plaza, fountain and steps leading up to the Vulcan that connects the iconic statue to downtown Birmingham. The park also includes the Kiwanis Vulcan Trail, a two-mile walking and biking trail. Nimrod Long & Associates also made improvements to the terrace, and added lighting and new landscaping.
Photo credit: Billy Brown Photography
The hallmark of Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park is its many sculptures related to the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Statues of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and other civil rights heroes, along with three installations that flank a circular “Freedom Walk.” Another sculpture depicts three local civil rights advocates and ministers in prayer. A sculpture called “Four Spirits” was unveiled at the park in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the nearby 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. In 1992, the four-acre park was renovated and rededicated to coincide with the opening of the nearby Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Large demonstrations took place at Kelly Ingram during the struggle for civil rights.
Photo credit: Chris Granger
No surprise that Avondale Park is one of Birmingham’s most beloved city parks. It’s also one of the oldest. The 36.5-acre site has been a park since 1887 and was home to the city’s first zoo. Renovated in 2011, the idyllic grounds consist of ball fields, an amphitheater, a duck pond surrounded with walking trails that meet ADA standards, a playground, picnic pavilion and plenty of benches throughout. Avondale Library and the restored Avondale Villa, an event facility, are also on the property. The steep slopes of the hill above the park contain woodlands and ruins from the zoo.
Photo credit: KPS Group
Promoting all that Alabama has to offer was the aim of a poster marketing campaign by Alabama Tourism. Each year showcased something different through the use of posters designed by Luckie and Company in Birmingham. The first year in 2004 was the “Year of Alabama Gardens” and subsequent years included music, art, outdoors, small town and downtowns. Food was so popular it was promoted twice and a documentary was created on the Year of Barbecue. The Year in Food also became an exhibit in New York City and several Alabama chefs were brought along. Brad White of Luckie and Company, the lead designer on the project, says the campaign brought attention to what is less known about Alabama and “put Alabama’s food on the map.” About 12 posters were made.
Photo credit: Alabama Tourism Department
Fifty-three illegally purchased West Africans were transported from Cuba in 1839 aboard the Spanish-built schooner Amistad. The slaves were able to stage a successful mutiny. One-hundred years later in 1939, Savery Library was dedicated at Talladega College, Alabama’s oldest private historically black liberal arts college. Savery Library contains murals depicting the Amistad painted by prominent black artist Hale Woodruff. The Amistad incident is depicted in three panels in the library lobby: The Mutiny, The Court Scene and The Return to Africa. Also in the lobby is a replica of the Amistad ship embedded in the terrazzo floor.
Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy
Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Sylacauga is Pursell Farms, a sprawling 3,200-acre resort that offers sweeping views of several counties. The bucolic, family-run Pursell Farms includes FarmLinks Golf Club, known as a “golfer’s golf course.” Alabama has first-rate golf courses, so when one stands out, that’s saying something. Among the resort’s many other amenities are the Orvis® Shooting Grounds, Hamilton Place wedding venue and The Inn, a recent addition designed by Birmingham-based ArchitectureWorks that includes 40 rooms, a restaurant, bar, meeting space and fitness center.
Photo credit: MackNally Land Design
Barber Motorsports Park is the brainchild of George Barber Jr., whose love of motorsports and collection of vintage motorcycles defines the park. KPS Group provided the park’s overall conceptual design and designed the first phase of the 145,000-square-foot museum. The result is a building that allows visitors to see all the various levels and exhibit areas as they enter and circulate between them without the use of stairs or elevators. The large atrium and sweeping helical ramp make the six levels of museum space an ever-unfolding experience. The geometry of the 740-acre site dictates the form of the museum building, with its volume increasing as it follows its sloping site.
Photo credit: Art Meripol
Hard to imagine that the Ross Bridge Renaissance Resort and Spa is just 20 minutes away from downtown Birmingham when it looks like it would be more at home in Switzerland or the Scottish countryside. Tucked into in the woodland and lakes of Hoover, the 240,000 square-foot resort features castle-like turrets, stone archways, a slate roof and a course on the Robert Trent Jones Gulf Trail. The award-winning project was designed by Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood and completed in 2005.
Photo credit: Goodwyn Mills and Cawood
Nestled into a heavily wooded 27-acre site, the old Southern Progress building constructed in 1990 leans into its natural landscape and bridges a 35-foot-deep ravine, creating a lobby which appears to be hovering over the tree tops. The reflective glass form is anchored to the hillside with Alabama fieldstone. Administrative offices, conference rooms, a 100-seat auditorium, photo studios and labs, a library and 13 test kitchens occupied the 150,000-square-foot building. Designed by KPS Group and Jova/Daniels/Busby of Atlanta, the project received design awards across the southeast.
Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy
The Alabama 4-H Center in Columbiana has a strong identity with its lakeside environmental education center. Davis Architects met the functional requirements needed for the 14,000 school children who visit yearly and achieved LEED® Gold Certification, a distinction only one other building in Alabama and no other 4-H facility in the nation at the time had achieved. The building combines natural stone and wood with steel and recycled materials. Environmental laboratories and display areas on the lower level support the 4-H Environmental Field School, while the upper level includes seminar rooms, multi-function space and a kitchen. Students can study nature from an observation deck at treetop level.
Photo credit: Davis Architects
When it was constructed in 1909, the 16-story Empire Building was the tallest building in Alabama. Designed by Carpenter & Blair Architects in New York and Renneker, Tichansky & Associates in Birmingham, the neoclassical high-rise features a molded terra-cotta façade and a terra-cotta cornice that wraps around the entire top of the building. The First Avenue entrance is flanked with monumental granite Doric columns. Iron pendant chandeliers adorn the ground floor lobby and an elaborate wrought iron awning overhangs the entrance. The Empire Building now serves as a luxury hotel.
Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy
On a busy corner of UAB’s campus is Heritage Hall, a five-story, 91,750-square-foot building housing the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Completed in 2008, the hall was designed by KPS Group in association with Goody Clancy Architects in Boston and contains lecture and seminar rooms, laboratory spaces and 118 faculty offices, as well as a computer lab and a digital video editing suite. The monumental glazed corner element and cascading steps provide a clear entry while a two-story glazed atrium floods the interior with natural light.
Photo credit: Thomas Watkins
Reuse and reverence for the land are evident throughout the 16-acre site of Stewart Perry Corporation’s LEED® certified headquarters in Birmingham. Once toxic due to its proximity to coal mines, the lake on the site is now clean. Water silos capture 40,000 gallons of rain annually and a year-round vegetable garden is maintained on the property. Designed by the former HKW Associates in Birmingham, all of the buildings on the site incorporate sustainable materials and practices, such as ceilings and doors fashioned from salvaged red bald cypress trees, and oak flooring repurposed from a tobacco warehouse.
Photo credit: Stewart Perry
In 1963, a Ku Klux Klan bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church killing four young girls. Though this National Historic Landmark is forever associated with this racially motivated crime, the building is much more than that, having long served the local black community and providing a meeting place for civil rights leaders. The present Romanesque-style building was constructed in 1911 and was designed by Wallace Rayfield, the second formally educated African-American architect in the United States. After the bombing, a stained glass window depicting a black Jesus was donated by the people of Wales and was installed in the front window.
Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy
Bold lines, geometric shapes and primary colors energize YMCA Youth Center in Birmingham. The former Phillips High School gym was renovated for after-school and summer care of children in the city center. Designed by CCR Architecture & Interiors in Birmingham, the project includes classrooms, exercise areas, locker rooms, a climbing totem, an exterior pool, playing fields and a garden. The YMCA Youth Center won the Honor Award from the Birmingham Chapter of the AIA, the Merit Award from the Alabama Council of the AIA, the Citation of Honor from the Gulf States Chapter of the AIA, and the Outstanding Project of the Year from the Construction Specifications Institute in 2007.
Photo credit: CCR Architecture & Interiors
Ballparks are for watching baseball, but at Regions Field in downtown Birmingham there’s plenty more to do. Participate in family fun games, picnic or enjoy the food and drink venues and take pleasure in the park’s other amenities. Home of the Birmingham Barons, Regions Field replaced the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium when it was decided to build a stadium downtown and bring baseball back to Birmingham. The park opened in 2013 and its sleek, modern stadium was a joint venture of HKS Inc. in Dallas, and Hoskins Architecture and GA Studio, both in Birmingham. The ballpark borrows elements from Birmingham’s Sloss Furnaces and Rickwood Field.
Photo credit: MackNally Land Design
Urban farms are springing up across America and one is thriving in downtown Birmingham on five acres of once vacant property. Jones Valley Urban Farm is a non-profit organization whose mission is to grow organic produce and flowers, educate the community about healthy food, and oversee two community gardens. Produce is sold at local farmers markets, restaurants, farm stands, grocery stores and a Food Box subscription. Among the many programs offered are an accredited high school agri-science program, K-8 nutrition field trips, teacher workshops, preschool gardening, student internships, hunger prevention, sustainable farming and preventing childhood obesity.
Photo credit: Goodwyn Mills & Cawood
St. Michael’s and All Angels Church in Anniston would not look out of place in an English village. Its many features express the Norman influence of Cornwall, home of the church’s founder. Built in 1890, the sandstone church was designed by architect William Halsey Wood, a finalist in the competition to design the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Stonemasons from England constructed the Anniston church of local materials. Bavarian craftsmen carved the crosses and symbols. Those British stonemasons could comfortably worship here since the Episcopal Church spun off the Church of England.
– Photo credit: Donna C. Hole