Your Town Alabama

“This is the workshop full of love, information and learning to help build our community,” said a participant of Your Town Alabama, a program that leverages a town’s assets – economic, historic/cultural and natural resources – to revitalize and invigorate the town. The first workshop was in 1998, adapted from a National Trust for Historic Preservation program. Alabama was the first state to implement the program and more than 1,000 citizen-leaders have participated in the 2 ½-day workshop. Partners include the Alabama Historical Commission, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, DesignAlabama, CAWACO RC&D, University of Alabama’s Center for Economic Development and Auburn University’s Rural Studio.

Photo Credit: Your Town Alabama

Alabama Innovation Engine

Alabama Innovation Engine – the name conveys it all – converting the power of new ideas into motion. Funded by the University of Alabama’s Center for Economic Development and Auburn University’s Urban Studio, the organization is a design-based community development initiative that fosters large scale constructive change by the use of design to encourage economic development in Alabama’s rural communities. The aim is to support communities as they realize the potential of their greatest resources. Partnerships are built between mission-driven organizations and design firms to create opportunities for design to have an impact on local innovation projects.

Photo Credit: Alabama Innovation Engine

Cullman: Southern Accents/Architectural Antiques

Vintage architectural treasures – Edison bulbs, ceiling fans and decorative tile to fireplace mantels, ironwork and antique doors and windows – can be found at Southern Architectural in Cullman. In 1969, Garlan Gudger began salvaging architectural remnants from Cullman buildings set for demolition. Objects were stored in his two-car garage, then a small shop which grew into Southern Architectural where rescued architectural salvage is restored. Southern Accents is now owned and operated by his son Garland Gudger Jr. and his wife Heather. Gudger Sr. was ahead of his time. Back in 1969, not as many people appreciated architectural salvage as they do today.

Photo Credit: Alabama Retail Association

Seale: Museum of Wonder

In Renaissance Europe, “cabinets of curiosities” were rooms that housed an eclectic mix of objects. Not what you’d expect to find off Highway 431 in Seale. Butch Anthony’s Museum of Wonder was described by the New York Times as: “A barnful of curiosities — the ‘world’s largest gallbladder,’ a replica of a human skeleton, a stuffed chicken — and more of Mr. Anthony’s artwork, which includes 19th-century portraits painted over with crisp white images of skeletons and old photographs affixed to paintings of mythical creatures of his own imagining.” Nearby is his Drive Thru Museum made from shipping containers with cutout windows that display a 1930s preacher’s tableau depicting hell, a stuffed two-headed chicken and other oddities.

Photo Credit: Alabama News Center

Huntsville: Green Pea Press

Founded by Rachel Lackey as the first community print shop in Alabama, Green Pea Press offers memberships, workshops, demonstrations and field trips, custom printing services, on-site event printing, and sells wholesale and retail items. Its studios and retail shop are located in Huntsville and occupy a building considered to be the nation’s largest independent arts center. One studio provides artists with access to equipment in fine art print media. Another studio, The Pea Pod, offers hand-printed items for sale made in-house by Green Pea Press. Custom screen printing production and workshops take place at a nearby second location.

Photo Credit: Alabama News Center

Greensboro: HERObike

HERObike, a nonprofit bike shop in Greensboro, is dedicated to ending poverty in and around Hale County. Former Victoria’s Secret designer Pam Dorr came up with the idea to put indigenous bamboo to use and create local jobs. The premise is to build a better bike out of bamboo – yes, bamboo – which is lightweight but strong, making it ideal for a bike frame. Bikes are made on site and workshops are offered for people who want to build their own. HERO stands for Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization, the nonprofit group that got HERObike up and running.

Photo Credit: Alabama News Center

Florence: Alabama Chanin

With her commitment to preserving design and living arts traditions, it’s no surprise that fashion brand founder Natalie Chanin is called a “slow design pioneer.” Clothing is made of 100 percent organic cotton fabric and reclaimed materials. Garments adorned with exquisite needlework inherent to rural communities are sold at Barney’s and other urbane, upscale stores. The Factory in Florence is home to Alabama Chanin’s flagship store and café, design and production studios, and event space. Her School of Making brings initiatives and educational programs to communities.

Photo Credit: alabamachanin.com

Birmingham: MAKEbhm

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

Montgomery: Shakespeare Gardens

At Shakespeare Gardens in Montgomery, the sights and fragrant smells will take you on a sensory journey back to Elizabethan England. Plants that grew during Shakespeare’s day delight the senses. The 56,700-square-foot garden complex is part of the Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park in Montgomery. Plants and flowers referred to in Shakespeare’s works are part of the landscape design. Roses grow that are mentioned in “Romeo and Juliet,” narcissus from “Antony and Cleopatra” and leek from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Gardens are surrounded by woven wattle fences built by Alabama craftsman, along with trellises, arbors and benches.

Photo Credit: Goodwyn Mills and Cawood

Mobile: Bienville Square

With its ancient live oaks, cast iron fountain, bandstand and diverse historic buildings around its perimeter, Bienville Square in the heart of downtown Mobile is the quintessential Southern square and one that rivals any in Charleston and Savannah. The square dates back to 1824 and was named for French Governor of Louisiana Jean Baptiste de Bienville. Improvements to Bienville Square in the Mobile 2020 Comprehensive Plan include additional ground floor retail for the surrounding buildings, integrated pedestrian paths and more landscaping.

Photo Credit: Chris Granger

Huntsville: Big Spring Park

The largest limestone spring in North Alabama is Big Spring, located at Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville that once served as Huntsville’s original water source. Today, the park might be better known for displaying gifts to the city from faraway countries: a light beacon and fog bell from Norway, a red bridge and cherry trees from Japan, a bench from the United Kingdom and a sundial from Germany. The park is also popular for its abundance of ducks and geese. Construction on the park began in 1898 and it is the site of many festivals and events each year.

Photo Credit: Internet

Birmingham: Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve and Park

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: Linn Park

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

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

Tim Cook

Apple recently became the first company in the United States to reach a $1 trillion market value due in large part to its well-designed products, in particular the iPhone. Apple CEO Tim Cook called this monumental milestone “not the most important measure” of the company’s success, but was instead the result of its laser-sharp focus on its products, customers and company values. Cook’s degree from Auburn University is in industrial engineering, not design. Nevertheless, Cook has taken one of the largest design-driven companies in the world to stratospheric heights.

Photo Credit: Tim Cook

Tippi Clark

With her experience in design and development for major brands, Auburn University industrial design graduate Tippi Clark’s resume reads like a Who’s Who in fashion design – Banana Republic, Kate Spade, Juicy Couture, Coach and Club Monaco, to name a few. The Opelika native is currently senior technical designer at Marc Jacobs for handbags and novelty accessories and creative director for the design firm The Novogratz. At Banana Republic, Clark was production and product development manager for all accessories and she served as director of development for Rebecca Minkoff. Clark is also the founder of denim brand Holt McCall and Little Flea NOLA, a new Orleans-based flea market specializing in vintage finds.

Photo Credit: Tippi Clark

Tom Hardy

Every time you use your laptop or ThinkPad you have early innovators like Alabama native Tom Hardy to thank. Hardy studied industrial design at Auburn University under Eva Pfeil and Walter Schaer and then began a 22-year career at IBM as an industrial designer of award-winning IBM products, including the original IBM Personal Computer introduced in 1981. In 2016, two products directly influenced by Hardy were selected by Time magazine as being among “The 50 Most Influential Gadgets of All Time.” No. 5 on the list is the first IBM Personal Computer 5150 and No. 21 is the iconic IBM ThinkPad 700C. Today, Hardy is Professor of Design Management at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Photo Credit: Tom Hardy

Alabama Department of Commerce: Made in Alabama campaign

Made in Alabama is a message that could not be simpler or more to the point. Launched by the Alabama Department of Commerce in 2013, Made in Alabama became a successful branding campaign designed to strengthen the state’s economic development and attract investment. The marketing initiative centers on its website, which provides sharable information that focuses on Alabama’s economic development achievements and what makes the state attractive for investment. The Made in Alabama brand and website was designed and developed by Alabama-based public relations and advertising agency BIG Communications.

Photo Credit: Big Communication & Alabama Department of Commerce

Craft Breweries in Alabama Create Unique Logos

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

Five A’s logo and supporting graphics

Alabama graphic designers make a lasting imprint (no pun intended), both nationally and internationally. Case in point is Auburn University graduate and graphic designer Brad Copeland, who created Atlanta’s well known “5-A’s” logo for its bid for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. Copeland went on to create many more Olympic images as the International Olympic Committee’s official advisor on the “Look of the Games.” Graphic designs make enduring impressions and the Olympic logos throughout the years appeal to both the young and old. Reaching a wide audience – and leaving a lasting mark as the Olympic logos do – is a hallmark of graphic design at its best.

Photo Credit: Brad Copeland/ Copeland Hirther

Kershaw/Progress Rail

When Montgomery-based Kershaw Manufacturing Company Inc. was incorporated in 1944, it was responding to the need for efficient vegetation control equipment for utility companies and railroads, and as a result became a pioneer in early vegetation control. Kershaw is now a subsidiary of Progress Rail Services Corporation, a leading integrated and diversified supplier of railroad and transit system products and services worldwide. In 2006, Progress Rail was acquired by Caterpillar Inc., a foremost global manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives.

Photo Credit: Kershaw/ Progress Rail

Alabama Power Hydro

Alabama Power was founded on renewable hydro energy and manages 14 hydro facilities along the Coosa, Tallapoosa and Black Warrior rivers. Its hydroelectric plants provide about 6 percent of the company’s power generation. These dams impound more than 157,000 acres of water and provide more than 3,500 miles of shoreline for public use and recreation. Lay Dam on the Coosa River near Clanton was built in 1914 and was Alabama Power’s first major project. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Alabama is ranked sixth in the nation for renewable energy capacity, primarily because of its existing hydro generation.

Photo Credit: Alabama News Center

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

The federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created in 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. It would also strengthen economic development and modernize its areas of service, which includes most of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky, and small sections of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. TVA’s service area in Alabama covers about 8,979 square miles, about 10 percent of TVA’s territory. TVA operates two solar facilities in Alabama – a 23-kilowatt site at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens and a 25-kilowatt site at the Florence wastewater treatment facility. In 2017, TVA sold over 17.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to 17 municipal and eight cooperatively owned utilities that distribute TVA power in Alabama.

Photo Credit: Tennessee Valley Authority

Vance: Mercedes-Benz Visitor Center

Many people can’t afford to purchase a Mercedes, but they can learn all about them at the Mercedes-Benz Visitor Center in Vance. In 2015, Mercedes-Benz invested $3 million to renovate the visitor center at its Alabama auto plant. The redesigned center offers an interactive exhibit of the automaker’s 128-year history. The original building was designed by Gresham, Smith and Partners in 1997 and has a swooping roof that mimics the lines of a classic Mercedes racecar. On display are cars from the horseless carriage days to those hot off the assembly line of plants including this one. The gleaming surfaces of finely crafted streamlined forms are evident throughout the building.

Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy

Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Bryce Hospital

Built in Tuscaloosa in the 1850s, Bryce Hospital opened in 1861 as the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane. The Italianate-style hospital designed by architect Samuel Sloan was the first building in Tuscaloosa with gas lighting and central heat. The University of Alabama bought the property in 2010, which is part of a project that includes a new performing arts center on the property. The new Performing Arts Academic Center will connect to the restored Bryce Hospital. The main hospital building is being renovated to include a welcome center, reception venue, offices and rehearsal space, along with museums dedicated to university history and the history of mental health in Alabama.

Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy

Talladega: Ritz Theatre

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

Talladega- Isbell Bank

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

Prattville: CBD/West Main/Pratt Factory

When Prattville founder Daniel Pratt opened his cotton gin factory in 1848 it became one of Alabama’s leading industries, supplying cotton gins in the United States and worldwide. Plans are under way to convert the Daniel Pratt Cotton Gin Factory into 147 loft-style apartments in the five historic brick buildings that comprise the factory. The old gin factory is part of the Daniel Pratt Historic District, which encompasses the 19th century nucleus of the town and consists of over 200 properties, most dating from 1840 to 1930, with a high concentration between 1880 and 1920. Among these are important early industrial buildings.

Photo Credit: City of Prattville

Prairieville: St. Andrews Episcopal Church

No wonder that St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Prairieville is popular with photographers. The small board-and-batten Carpenter-Gothic church was built in 1853 by slaves and features wooden buttresses, gothic windows and tiny white-painted wooden crosses that embellish each roof ridge. The unaltered interior has hand-carved symbols and figures on the altar rail and in the chancel. A mixture brewed from tobacco plants was possibly used to stain the interior walls. The design may have been influenced by Richard Upjohn, a British-born architect who immigrated to the United States and became famous for his Gothic-Revival churches including Trinity Church in New York City.

Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy

Newbern: Auburn University Rural Studio

No place fits the proverb “necessity is the mother of invention” better than Hale County in west-central Alabama. It is here in the fertile Black Belt soil that Auburn University’s internationally renowned Rural Studio took root, driven by the belief that both the rich and poor are worthy of good design. Auburn University architecture students design and build context-based, socially conscious houses and community buildings using practically anything they can get their hands on: scavenged and donated materials, discarded building supplies, car parts, bottles, old road signs, license plates and carpet tiles. Many building projects are in Newbern, the Rural Studio’s headquarters, as well as the surrounding area.

Photo Credit: Rural Studio

Mountain Brook: Mountain Brook Village

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

Montgomery: St. John’s Episcopal Church

St. John’s was organized in 1834 by pioneer settlers and is the oldest Episcopal parish in Montgomery. In 1855 a larger church was built, designed by the nation’s foremost church architects Wills & Dudley of New York, which comprises the narthex and nave of the present church. By 1869, more room was needed and the church was torn down, its bricks used to build the present chancel and sanctuary. Further expansion took place in 1906, at which time Italian mosaic tile was laid on the floor of the enlarged chancel. The church’s windows include stained glass by Charles Connick of Boston and Louis Tiffany of New York.

Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy

Monroeville: Courthouse Square

Three courthouses have flanked the Monroeville Courthouse Square over the years. First was the antebellum courthouse, which was replaced with a new courthouse in 1904, followed by the present day Monroe County Courthouse. When To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960, the 1904 courthouse gained national fame. In 1963, county offices moved to a new building on the square. The former courthouse became the Old Courthouse Museum, which opened full time in 1991 with the first production of a play adapted from To Kill a Mockingbird performed in the courtroom. The Monroeville Downtown Historic District is centered on the courthouse square and the streets that border it.

Photo Credit: Chris Granger

Malbis: Memorial Church

A few miles east of Mobile is Malbis Memorial Church, a Greek Orthodox church that opened in 1965 in memory of Jason Malbis, founder of Malbis Plantation. Exquisite murals depicting the life of Christ, carved marble and vividly pigmented stained glass decorate the church. The Byzantine Revival structure is also noted for its mosaics made by Italian artist Sirio Tonelli, along with painted religious iconography. The church was designed by Frederick C. Woods of Mobile and is a copy of a church in Athens, Greece. Its marble is said to have come from the same quarries that provided stone for the Parthenon.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia.com

Magnolia Springs: Historic District

Southern Living magazine calls Magnolia Springs a small town with “almost too much charm to handle.” Even the street names are charming, such as Pecan Grove Street and Cotton Stocking Lane. Located in southern Baldwin County, live oak canopies shade the district’s streets that have several structures on the National Register, including Moore’s Grocery and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Among other early buildings are the Magnolia Springs Bed & Breakfast and the 1894 Community Hall. Mail arrives by boat. Magnolia Springs has the only river route for mail delivery in the United States.

Photo Credit: Internet

Indian Springs: Indian Springs School Phase 1

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

Huntsville: Twickenham Historic District

Sounds like something out of Dickens. Twickenham Historic District gets points not only for its charming name, but also its impressive collection of antebellum homes. Huntsville’s first designated historic district was named after the town of Twickenham, England by LeRoy Pope, known as the “father of Huntsville.” The district contains homes in the Federal and Greek-Revival architectural styles and is believed to contain the densest concentration of antebellum homes in Alabama. Built in 1819, the district’s Weeden House Museum is open to the public as are other houses in the district.

Photo Credit: Hunstville Historic Preservation Committee

Demopolis: Public Square

One of the oldest public squares in Alabama is the Demopolis Public Square that was established in 1819. The focal point of the park – which takes up a city block – is a large cast iron fountain installed in 1895. A pavilion built in 1886 provides visitors with shade and protection from inclement weather. Two other historic buildings are in the square: Rooster Hall that was originally built as a Presbyterian church in 1843 and the old City hall building, parts of which date back to 1820.

Photo credit: Internet

Dauphin Island: Isle Dauphine Club

An example of Googie architecture – the whimsical, futuristic design movement that brought the Space Age aesthetic into everyday life – is the 1957 clubhouse at the Isle Dauphine Club on Dauphin Island. The mid-20th century building was designed by T. Howard Ellis, Arch Winter and Carl Burmeister and features a two-story tiered cylindrical form with a smaller stucco cylindrical tower. The walls are a floor-to-ceiling metal, and a glass gridded curtain wall allows for expansive views of the island and golf course while flooding the space with natural light. A terrace roof is also part of the design that provides additional space for viewing.

Photo Credit: Lewis Kennedy

Birmingham: Lyric Theatre Interior

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

Birmingham: Temple Emanuel/Addition

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

Birmingham: Ruffner Mountain Nature Center

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

Birmingham: Innovation Depot

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

Birmingham: Rickwood Field

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

Birmingham: Sloss Furnaces

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

Birmingham: Crestwood Park

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

Birmingham: BLHI Group Office Building

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

Alexander City: Spring House

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