Montgomery-Capitol/Dexter Ave/Court Square

U.S. history changed twice on Montgomery’s six-block Dexter Avenue. At one end is Court Square with its circa 1885 fountain and the Alabama State Capitol steps are at the other. It was on Dexter Avenue that Confederate delegates decided to fire on Fort Sumter – a decision that started the Civil War. Ninety years later, the Civil Rights movement was born here. Dexter Avenue’s historic sites include the spot where Rosa Parks boarded the fateful bus, the Rosa Parks Museum and the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor. Also on Dexter Avenue is Chris’ Hot Dogs, a restaurant open since 1917 that has served everyone from Dr. King and F. Scott Fitzgerald to Hank Williams and Elvis.

Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy

Main Street Alabama

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 Communities of Excellence

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

Montgomery: Cotton and Pine

When A.H. Cather Publishing Company in Birmingham closed its door after 100 years, Cotton & Pine purchased its antique letterpress printing equipment to keep the ancient art alive.  The Montgomery-based Cotton & Pine offers print design, video and web, and custom letterpress printing. Founded by Daniel Mims and Steven Lambert, who is creative director, Cotton & Pine offers a full-service print shop and design studio that offers all the creative services of a design firm. Its in-house shop, C&P Mercantile, sells their line of ready-made, 100 percent cotton paper goods and hand-crafted items from Alabama and throughout the South.

Photo credit: boxcarpress.com

Leeds: Earthborn Pottery

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

Fort Payne: Zkano & Little River Sock Company

Fort Payne was once the Sock Capital of the World and Gina Locklear is keeping its claim-to-fame alive with Zkano and Little River Sock Company, her two lines of high-end socks. Locklear started the company in 2009 to design and manufacture socks using certified organic cotton and sustainable practices at Emi-G Knitting, her parent’s sock company that is one of the few mills still operating in Fort Payne. All phases of production are in-house from knitting to finishing without the use of harmful heavy metal dyes. Locklear says the company has “no plans to ever leave Fort Payne.”

Photo credit: AL.com

Florence: hand-crafted brooms by George Jones Jr.

Among the most cherished crafts are those that are both beautiful and functional such as the brooms made by George Jones Jr. in Florence. A fourth-generation broom-maker, Jones uses some of the same equipment and techniques as his grandfather nearly a century ago. Jones makes broom handles from dogwood, oak and other native woods found on the family farm. His brooms are available at regional art shows and the gift shops of the Kentuck Art Center in Northport and the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. 

Photo credit: AL News Center

Auburn University: Alabama Workshops Toolkit 

Though the creative process is often a solitary pursuit, design is becoming more integrated thanks to such innovations as the Alabama Workshop[s] Toolkit, a guide to how craft artisans in Alabama conduct workshops. Created by Robert Finkel, associate professor of Auburn University’s Graphic Design in the School of Industrial & Graphic Design, and Sheri Schumacher, associate professor emerita in AU’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, the toolkit is used to promote a network of Alabama artisans, makers and organizations that offer workshops for craft production.

Photo credit: Sheri Schumacher

Mobile: The Grand Hotel (Point Clear- The Grand Hotel)

Built in 1847, the historic Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club and Spa and its grounds on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay has undergone a $32 million renovation. Part of the renovation project is a new recreational lawn with games and a new courtyard with fire pits and improved landscaping. The hotel’s Azalea and Dogwood golf courses are also part of the renovation. The Grand Hotel has long held a prominent place in Alabama history. In 1864, a portion of the hotel became a Confederate hospital during the Civil War. About 300 Confederate soldiers are buried in a cemetery near the 18th tee of the Azalea course.

Photo credit: Goodwyn Mills & Cawood

Wetumpka: Jasmine Hill Gardens and Outdoor Museum

No wonder that Jasmine Hill Gardens and Outdoor Museum near Wetumpka is called “Alabama’s Little Corner of Greece” with its collection of nearly 40 pieces of Greek statuary, both original and reproductions. The 20-acre botanical garden was established in the early 1930s by Benjamin and Mary Fitzpatrick who made over 20 trips to Greece to purchase art objects. The gardens include a copy of the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece and a separate restored temple facade at the museum entrance as it would have looked during the 7th Century B.C. Paths throughout the garden are made from native stone constructed as a WPA project. The garden is operated by the nonprofit Jasmine Hill Foundation.

Photo credit: Peggy Collins

Birmingham: Rotary Trail

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

Birmingham: Rail Road Park

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

KW Container

A pioneer in the plastics recycling industry, Troy-based KW Plastics was founded in 1981 to process used automotive battery casings into polypropylene resin – a durable and versatile material much in demand for making quality recycled products. In 1998, KW entered the packaging industry with its all-plastic, one-gallon can that’s injection molded and 100 percent recycled and recyclable. Today, KW Container is the leading global supplier with these all-plastic, one-gallon paint containers to the paint and coatings industry. KW also supplies recycled resin to many industries including automotive, agriculture and construction.

Photo credit: KW Container

Chris Livaudais

An organization that was instrumental to the design career of Chris Livaudais has now appointed him to its top position. The Auburn University industrial design graduate is the new interim executive director of the Industrial Designers Society of America, one of the oldest and largest industrial design associations. Livaudais has been an active member in IDSA since he graduated from Auburn University in 2002, serving in several key regional positions. Livaudais was senior design consultant at Embraer in the San Francisco Bay Area when named to head the IDSA. Prior to this, he was creative director of InReality in Atlanta. 

Photo credit: Chris Livaudais

Lloyd Cooper

“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

Eva Pfeil and Walter Schaer

Two professors of industrial design at Auburn University made important contributions to field in Alabama and beyond. Drs. Eva Pfeil and Walter Schaer, both graduates of the famed Ulm School of Design in Germany, joined Auburn’s faculty in 1960. For three decades they elevated its industrial design program and taught countless students who themselves made significant contributions in the field. Pfeil and Schaer are recognized as educators who “brought to the South a new design approach which considered user-centered research a prerequisite for intelligent and responsible product development.”

Photo credit: Eva Pfeil and Walter Schaer

The Posters of Auburn’s Urban Studio Small Town Design Initiative

Revitalizing towns should involve the entire community, and what better way to do so than provide a “snapshot” of the master plan in poster form that can be distributed to every household and displayed throughout town?  Posters were part of Auburn University’s Urban Studio Small Town Design Initiative which provided master planning and design expertise to small towns and communities throughout Alabama. The posters were designed to be folded for mailing and used as a tool for recruiting, promotion and partnership building.  Another plus is that the folded posters can easily be tucked into grant proposals that seek additional funding sources for projects included in the plan.  

Photo credit: Cheryl Morgan

DesignAlabama journal

When it comes to the DesignAlabama Journal, you certainly can “judge a book by its cover.” Just as important as its content was its design, from the logo still used today to the layout and pleasing balance between positive and negative space. The first article was written by the late Philip Morris, the organization’s first chair of the board of directors. DesignAlabama was founded in 1987 and the journal was available a year later and printed through 2015. Today, it is available as a monthly digital newsletter, DesignAlabama Online. Past print journals are online through the Auburn University Digital Library. Written by then DesignAlabama director Becky Mullen in the second issue: “If response to the first issue of this journal is any indication, DesignAlabama’s future looks promising.” Indeed, it was.     

Photo credit: DesignAlabama

Car manufacturers: Hyundai, Mercedes, Honda

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

Selma: Edmund Pettus Bridge

The 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March was a pivotal moment in the nation’s progress toward racial justice. The Edmund Pettus Bridge, which marchers crossed on their way to Montgomery, is among the most sacred places in civil rights history. Law enforcement officers attacked marchers with tear gas and nightsticks on March 7, 1965, a day that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” The attention the march generated helped persuade Congress to adopt the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Built in 1940, the bridge is considered a significant engineering improvement over the old bridge that had to be opened by hand.

Photo credit: Art Meripol

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

Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Quad

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

Thomasville: Central Business District

Founded in 1888, Thomasville was in its infancy when a major fire in 1899 destroyed the town’s first business district. The fire destroyed the entire downtown area, burning 23 businesses and the postmaster’s residence. Because most of the businesses destroyed were hastily constructed wooden buildings, the town council passed an ordinance stipulating that only brick buildings could be built downtown. Many of these buildings remain today in the Thomasville Historic District, which features examples of early commercial, Queen Anne, Colonial-Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman and regional vernacular architecture.

Photo credit: Brittany Faush-Johnson, Alabama News Center

Sterret: Sunshine Farms Chapel

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

Pittsview: pair of historic churches

In the tiny hamlet of Pittsview – an unincorporated community in Russell County – are two exceptional examples Carpenter-Gothic churches that stand side-by-side on a scenic wooded street. One is the United Methodist built in 1893 and the other is the Pittsview Baptist Church built in 1897. Both are thought to be constructed by master carpenter and Pittsview resident William Marshall Burt. Both churches are white painted wood-frame with pointed arches over the windows and graceful steeples above the bell towers. Today, shared services are offered on alternating Sundays to help sustain church attendance.  

Photo credit: unknown

Moundville Archeological Park

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

Mooresville: Historic District

Sandwiched by Huntsville to the east and Decatur to the west, Mooresville is a picture-perfect little town and one of Alabama’s smallest, comprising just six streets with a population barely over 50. It’s also one of the oldest, being the first town incorporated by the Alabama Territorial Legislature in 1818. The Stagecoach Inn and Tavern, where town council meetings are still held, was built in 1825 and served as the first post office until the current post office was constructed about 1840, making it the oldest post office in continuous use in Alabama.  The entire town of Mooresville – known as “Alabama’s Williamsburg” – is on the National Register.

Photo credit: Art Meripol

Montgomery: Huntingdon College core

Part of the historic Old Cloverdale neighborhood in Montgomery, the central campus of Huntingdon College features buildings of Collegiate-Gothic architecture that surround a pleasing park-like setting known as the Green. The Huntingdon College Campus Historic District contains 13 contributing buildings, built in the Gothic-Revival and Tudor-Revival styles. The landscape design for the campus was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Huntingdon is private liberal arts college founded in 1854 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

Photo credit: Alabama Historical Commission

Mobile:  Washington Square

Mobile’s historic urban squares may not be as well known as Savannah’s, but they are equally beautiful with their majestic live oaks, graceful fountains and surrounding antebellum architecture. At the heart of Oakleigh Garden Historic District in Mobile is Washington Square, among the city’s most beloved parks and one that serves as a social and cultural hub. On the National Register of Historic Places, Oakleigh Garden Historic District is centered on Washington Square and contains 288 contributing buildings that range in age from the 1820s to the 1940s.

Photo credit: unknown

Mobile:  Spring Hill College Quad

A cluster of early buildings on the campus of Mobile’s Spring Hill College comprise the historic Quadrangle. The main building in the Quadrangle was constructed in 1831 in the Greek-Revival style and burned in 1869. Within a year, a Neo-Renaissance style administration building was constructed on the site. Also part of the group of buildings is St. Joseph’s Chapel built in 1910 in the Gothic-Revival style. The perimeter of the Quadrangle, which is on the National Register, is enclosed by an open arched arcade that is topped by crenellation.

Photo credit: kudzu.shc.edu

Little Texas: Little Texas Methodist Tabernacle

One of the last structures of its kind is located in Little Texas, an unincorporated town near Tuskegee. It’s the Little Texas Methodist Tabernacle, which has been the site of camp meetings since the 1850s and was built by local black and white settlers. Worshipers camped in the open air or in temporary wooden tent-like barracks during long revivals. The tabernacle is a “post and beam” building constructed of heavy timbers without the use of nails. Still in use today, the tabernacle has a three-aisled frame with a nave center aisle, used for two rows of pews facing an altar, and a hip roof.

Photo credit: hmdb.org

Jackson County: Russell Cave NM

A great place for a spelunking adventure is Russell Cave National Monument near Bridgeport. At 7.5 miles, Russell Cave is the third longest cave in Alabama and was used as a shelter for prehistoric inhabitants. Along with Russell Cave, there are more than 1,500 caves which have been explored in Jackson County – more caves per square mile than anywhere else in America. Access to Russell Cave is limited to its geologically unusual cave entrance. In this flat protected space, artifacts have been found dating back to some of the earliest human existence in North America.

Photo credit: Alabama Historical Commission

Huntsville: Courthouse Square

Courthouse Square has long been a significant part of Huntsville’s commercial core with a two-story brick courthouse completed in 1818, the year before Alabama’s statehood. Its Greek-Revival proportions were introduced by Virginia architect George Steele who planned the courthouse and drew up the specifications. Today, its modern counterpart is on the same site and courthouse square remains the center of municipal affairs. Steele also designed the second courthouse, demolished before 1914, along with the First Alabama Bank Building, which he completed in 1840 and is still in use.

Photo credit: Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood

Gulf Shores: Gulf State Park

Not been to Gulf State Park in a while or never have? You’re in for a treat. Completed in 2018, the $135 million Gulf State Park Enhancement Project by Architecture Works consists of five components – a new lodge, interpretive center, a learning campus consisting of nine small buildings, dune restoration and 15 miles of new trails that include pedestrian bridges. Initiated in 2014, the enhancement project is “design-centric” encompassing architecture, landscape architecture and graphic design, observes project design director Matt Leavell. The 6,150-acre Gulf State Park is certainly worth such an ambitious enhancement effort. No other park along the Gulf Coast has as many diverse ecosystems or as much preserved acreage.

Photo credit: Architecture Works

Gee’s Bend: Ferry Terminal

Not only is Gee’s Bend home to world-famous quilters, but also the first all-electric ferry in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, making daily 15-minute runs between Camden and Gee’s Bend. The diesel-powered ferry was converted into a battery-powered electric vessel as part of the recent redevelopment of the ferry terminal, operated by HMS Ferries, Inc. under contract with the Alabama Department of Transportation. During the civil rights movement, black Gee’s Bend residents rode the ferry to the county seat at Camden to register to vote, so local authorities shut down the ferry service. Gee’s Bend residents were without ferry service for over 40 years until service resumed in 2006. 

Photo credit: Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood

Florence: Toms Wall-Natchez Trace 

Just east of Natchez Trace Parkway outside Florence is one man’s heartrending tribute to his great-great grandmother, a Yuchi Indian who lived in the area during the 1800s. Tom Hendrix, who died in 2017 at the age of 83, built Tom’s Wall, said to be the largest un-mortared wall in the United States, constructed of stones from over 120 countries. As a young girl, Hendrix’s great-great grandmother was forced to walk to Oklahoma. A year later she escaped and spent five years walking back to her beloved Alabama. Tom’s Wall – land art expressing a tangible symbol of human perseverance – is open daily.

Photo credit: Florence Lauderdale Tourism

Florence: Rosenbaum House 

Architecture critic Peter Blake wrote in 1960 that during the 1930s Frank Lloyd Wright built four structures of “a beauty unexcelled in America before or since.” One is the Rosenbaum House in Florence, the state’s only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building. In 1939, newlyweds Mildred and Stanley Rosenbaum contacted Wright to build their home. The L-shaped house made largely of cypress wood and brick has multilevel low-rising steel-cantilevered roofs. The original floor plan provided 1,540 square feet of living space, and a 1948 extension added another 1,084 square feet. The city operates the house as a museum, which displays original Wright-designed furniture.

Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy

Cullman: St Paul’s Lutheran Church

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Cullman is proof that a modern house of worship can be as spiritually uplifting as a more traditional Gothic or Romanesque design. Constructed during 1969-1970, the church was designed by architect Robert H. Adams of Charles H. McCauley Associates. The powerfully simple, symmetrical design has dramatic curving roof lines flanking the towering stained-glass window and cross. The roof sits on supporting walls of rubble-style stone. Enhancing the symmetry are stone planters on either side of the entry. Inside, the massive beams follow the outer form of the roof and are reminiscent of a ship, evoking Noah’s Ark.

Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy

Birmingham: Five Points South

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

Birmingham: YMCA

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

Birmingham: Interior of Linn-Henley Research Library

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

Birmingham: UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center 

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

Birmingham: Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge

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

Auburn: Auburn University: Samford Hall

According to legend, as a prank students once led a cow up the tower stairs of Samford Hall at Auburn University. Though this story may not be true, what is certain is that Samford Hall symbolizes Auburn University nearly as much as football. The university’s original classroom building called “Old Main” was destroyed by fire in 1887. The following year Samford Hall was constructed in part with bricks salvaged from Old Main. In 1929, the building was named for Alabama Governor William J. Samford.  An electronic carillon in the clock tower regularly plays the Westminster Chimes and “War Eagle,” Auburn’s fight song. 

Photo credit: Auburn University

Athens: Courthouse Square Commercial Historic District

In 1818, the White House officially reopened after being burned down four years earlier by the British. That same year Athens was founded, one of Alabama’s oldest towns whose past is centered in its Courthouse Square Commercial Historic District.  Most buildings date from the early 20th century, a result of the Civil War and major fires that destroyed earlier buildings. Notable buildings include the Limestone County Courthouse, now a courthouse annex, built in 1919 in neoclassical style with Palladian influences. The neoclassical Old Post Office building was built in 1933 by the Works Progress Administration and features Doric columns, granite cast iron lamps and marble floors. 

Photo credit: Main Street Alabama

Athens: Founders Hall

The adjective “stately” is often used, and even overused, to describe buildings of substance. Yet it’s an apt description of Founders Hall on the Athens State University campus. Built during 1842-1844, the Greek Revival-style building is distinguished by a spacious recessed portico with monumental iconic columns and flanking piers. Additions over the years have tripled the dimensions of the original building, which included adding a third floor.  Founders Hall was built by the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Church on five acres of donated land and houses the university president’s office.

Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy

Alexander City Children’s Harbor Lodge

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