Design Alabama: The Public Forum for Design in Alabama, Volume 9, Issue 2, 1999

              Spring/Summer 1999
Volume IX, Issue II
$4.00
THE PUBLIC FORUM FOR DESIGN IN ALABAMA
DesignAlabama Inc.
Board of Directors:
Rip Weaver, Chair
Mt Laure!
Birmingham
Nancy Mims Hartsfield, Vice Chair
Graphic Design
A.uburn University
80 Grisham, Secretary
Southpace Properties Inc.
Birmingham
Henry Hughes, Treasurer
Shades Va/fey Forestry
Birming~.am
Elizabeth Ann Brown
Alabama Historical Commission
Montgomery
Charles Callans
Eastwood Ma!!
Birmingham
Cathryn S. Campbell
Goodwin Miffs and Cawood Inc.
Montgomery
Les D. Clark
Artist
Thomasville
Marty Ellis
Business Council of Alabama
Monigomery
Tin Man Lau
Industrial Design
Auburn University
Kenneth M. Penuel
Southern Company Services
Birmingham
Lloyd Philpo'!
Phi/po't Ergospace Design
Decatur
Danny Ray
Exchange Bank of Alabama
Gadsden
Kay F. Roney
Wallace Community Col/ege
Dothan
Patricia E. Sherman
Patricia E. S,'ierman, Architect
Gadsden
Laura Quenelle, Director
Philip A. Morris, Director Emeritus
Southern Progress Corp.
Birmingham
Volume IX, Issue II
Cover: New Student Services Building at the
University of Alabama. Photograph by John O'Hagan
From the Director
DesignAlabama is pleased to announce the publication of
the first in a new series of Citizen's Design Primers. Urban
Forestry and the Community highlights the importance of
landscape planning and design to overall community
appearance and provides practical advice on species selection,
placement and maintenance. See Details C!f Interest for more
information on this exciting new effort to promote design
awareness and education.
This issue's feature offers a look at three new buildings that
are designed to shape space, not just occupy it. Philip Morris
also surveys a new office building project for South trust Bank
that exemplifies successful collaboration between interior
designers and architects.
Historical Perspectives provides a sneak preview of the
rebirth of Mobile's long-neglected Fort Conde Village, while
Community Proflle gives a status report on Huntsville's
Downtown Master Plan, now in its .1 Oth year. The work of
award-winning graphic designer Chad Bottcher is the subject of
Designer Profile, and ACDP Update highlights the recent efforts
of the Alabama Community Design Program in Valley, Ala.
This publication and the newly released Design Primer are
examples of our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of life in
Alabama through design education and awareness. Your
financial support plays a major role in ensuring these valuable
programs are continued into the next millennium. Help us
"spread the word" by sending in your membership application
or renewal today.
Editor: Laura Quenelle
Managing Editor: Tomie D. Dugas
Art Director: Nancy Hartsfield
Associate Art Directors: Ross Heck. Samantha Lawrie
Assistant Art Directors: Ray Dugas. Tomie D. Dugas
Electronic Illustrations: John Morgan
Contributing Writers: Philip Morris, Laura Quenelle
This publication is made possible through funding by
the following contributors:
Alabama State Council on the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
EBseo Industries
Alabama Power Foundation
Alabama Council of the American
Institute of Architects
Designform Inc.
A special thanks to Philip Morris, editor-In-chief of
Southern Progress Corp., for his ongoing assistance and
advice with this pubfication.
Submission Information
DesignAlabama encourages submissions from
its readers. Articles about work from all design
disciplines are requested. as well as copy related to
historic preservation. Please submit copy along with
visuals (photos. slides. drawings. etc.) to
DesignAlabama Inc.. 204 North 20th St.. Ste. 201.
Birmingham. AL 35203.
Items for Project News and Details of
Interest should include a paragraph summary
detailing the nature of the project. the design firm.
prinCipals and associates involved and any other
details that may be of interest such as unusual or
special design features. completion date.
approximate cost. square footage. etc. Also include
the name, address and phone and fax number of the
client and an individual whom we may contact for
further information. Direct inquiries to Laura Quenelle
at (800) 849-9543 or (205) 254-8545 or
by fax at (205) 323-8385.
Past journal issues are available for $6.00
including postage and handling. Contact Laura
Quenelie at the above numbers for availability
information and to order.
© 1999 DesignAlabama Inc.
ISSN# 1090-0918
This issue of DesignAlabama was designed and
produced on Macintosh Computers uiilizing QuarkXPress
4.0. Proofs were printed on a HP 4000N and final output
on a Compugraphic 9400.
Collaborative effort yields dramatic design for
SouthTrust complex
p.8
DesignAlabama is a publication of DesignAlabama Inc.
Reader comments and submission of ariicles and ideas for
future issues are encouraged.
Desi nAlabama
CONTENTS
Energen Plaza corporate headquarters
responds to context
Abandoned houses in Ft Conde Village
undergo revival.
p.14 p.24
FEATURES
"SHAPING PUBLIC SPACE"
STRUCTURES THAT SPARK MEANINGFUL OUTDOOR ROOMS. 11
A NEW CAMPUS ELLIPSE 12
THE ENERGEN EXCEPTION 14
EMERGING IN MONTGOMERY 16
ARTICLES
SOUTHTRUST, WILDWOOD
TEAMWORK STARTS EARLY.
DEPARTMENTS
ProjectANews
Work of statewide significance.
ACDPtUpdate
DesignValley.
............ - •................................•...
Designer~Profi Ie
Bringing Big Ideas to a Small Town: Chad Bottcher.
Community.Profi Ie
Huntsville's Urban Turnaround.
Historical~Perspectives
Signs of Life at Mobile's Fort Conde Village.
Details+Of Interest
Noteworthy observations.
8
4
7
18
20
24
25
Huntsville·s dowtown turnaround spreading
beyond Big Spring Park.
p.20
Project .... News
DesignAlabama 4
Project News
is a regular
feature of
OesignAlabama and
provides
an opportunity
to keep
up-to-date on
design projects
that have an impact on
our communities.
···········��·······��···����·····A··r··C'·b+t··e-·C'·t-·lI·f·-e· ........................... .
The 125,OOO-square-foot Rust
Building, a long-vacant eyesore on
Birmingham's Southside, will soon
receive a new lease on life as The
Garrison Barrett Group Inc.
completes construction documents for
the building's transformation into the Ridge Park Office
Building According to Jeff Quinn, project architect, the
building will be updated by adding a metallic soffit and
wall panels at the penthouse roof, a pre-cast concrete and
glass curtain-wall entry on the north and south elevations
and a roof garden. Interior renovation will include the
addition of a two-story lobby with balcony overlook. The
Birmingham Chapter of the Red Cross will be the anchor
tenant, occupying the first two floors. In addition to Quinn, the
design team includes Aubrey Garrison III, AlA, principal­in-
charge, and Nancy Jernigan, !IDA, interior design The
building is a property of Sloss Development Group
Birmingham:' Rusf Building will be fransformed into the Ridge Park Office Building.
Designers used color, bold patterns and soft three­dimensional
curves to make SI. Vincent:, neonatal
~ intensive care unit an inviting place. = 1i!
~ .'g"
~
~ =
Birmingham's St Vincent's Hospital
recently contracted with Gresham,
Smith and Partners to provide
interior design for its new neonatal
intensive care unit The technical
nature of the project presented a
challenge to the designers to create a space that is not
sterile and utilitarian. They employed color, bold patterns
and soft three-dimensionai curves to articulate movement
through the space, invite interaction between individual
spaces and create an informal feeling.
2l Two subtle design details help ensure the comfort of the
I= unit's fragile patients. The designers chose sheet vinyl
flooring in the critical care unit, eliminating the need for
noisy mechanical wax strippers and floor buffers, and
careful lighting placement avoids hot spots around babies
while providing enough light for staff and visitors.
The design team included Jim Koepke, AlA, project
manager, and Diane Tate-Whatley, IIDA, interior design.
.. ·························U··,··b··a:·il·····.JJ··e-·S··j··!t·il .. · .. ··············· .. ··· ..
When preparing local zoning
ordinances, small rural communities
often adopt basic ordinances originally
designed for suburban and urban
communities. This "cut-and-paste"
method is easy and inexpensive but
: does not take into consideration that what is best in the
, suburbs does not always apply to a small town. In an effort
f to provide more appropriate zoning standards for the rural
: communities in its district, the East Alabama Regional
: Planning and Development Commission (EARPDC)
: incorporated a "Village Walk" concept into its zoning
1 development process for the Town of Cedar Bluff
: The primary objective of the Village Walk is to develop an
: understanding of how design contributes to the
: community's special character. Members of the planning
: commission participate in a series of study trips to
: neighborhoods in the community that reflect its cherished
: characteristics or that exemplify development patterns and
: physical design elements that contribute to the
: community's identity. This hands-on approach results in a
: zoning ordinance tailored to each community's needs and
: circumstances. EARPDC planning director David A.
: Umling calls the effort, "a resounding success in
: providing the town with a zoning ordinance that has
: been specifically designed to promote and reinforce its
: special character."
The water tower occupies a commanding position in Cedar
Bluff's Town Park.
...................... ·E .... n .... g .... j .. ·n .. ·e .. ·e .. ·r .... i .... n .... g .................... ·
Birmingham-based CRS Engineering
and Design Consultants Inc. has
completed construction documents for
the new Mississippi Museum of Natural
Science in LeFleur's Bluff State Park
near Jackson, Miss. The new 73,000-
square-foot facility will replace the present museum and is
scheduled for completion by October. According to
Michael Reddington, PE, partner-in-charge and project f: manager, CRS is providing HVAC, plumbing engineering
CO> , and interior and exterior specialty iighting for the museum,
Highway 9 as it runs through downtown Cedar Bluff
Historic home in the town of Cedar Bluff
= ,
~ ,.: as well as mechanical and plumbing engineering for
terraria and nine aquaria ranging in size from 1,200 to
1,900 gallons. The engineering team also included Andy
Covington, contract administrator, John Gill, lighting
consultant, and Bill Early, plumbing engineer.
.. ................ ·J·il .. d .. u .. s·t .. r+·a .. I ...... I}·e·~·j .. g .. n-................ ..
Auburn University Industrial Design
students and faculty are working with
the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA)
to make the Robert R. Taylor housing
project a safer place to live. They are
. developing outdoor lighting fixtures
: that will provide adequate light at a low cost, while at the
: same time be safe from destruction by gangs and criminals
i who prefer to break the law under cover of night.
: Students and professor Rich Britnell visited the
i community earlier this year and completed extensive
: research to create 16 designs, three of which were chosen
: for further development and study.
: The project, which began last quarter with a class of senior
: industrial design students, is a cooperative effort between
! Auburn, the CHA and the Oak Ridge National Laboratories
in conjunction with the Department of Energy.
Industrial design student Garth Uris conducts the "bat test" on a
redesigned light fixture.
5 Volume IX. No. !!
In celebration of its 100th anniversary,
the American Society of Landscape
Architects (ASLA) is renovating or
creating 100 parks and greenspaces
across the country through its 100
Parks, 100 Years program. ASLNs 47
chapters, located coast to coast and in Hawaii, will
contribute to the planning, design, construction and
maintenance of local "parks" ranging from inner-city
playgrounds and therapeutic gardens to historic sites and
community greenways
A preliminary plan for Caldwell Park which resulted from the
recent design charrette.
The Alabama chapter of the ASLA has selected Caldwell
Park, located along Birmingham's historic Highland
Avenue, for restoration and will receive a $2,000 grant
from ASLA for the project The chapter is partnering with
the City of Birmingham, local developer Bayer Properties
and the Highland Park Neighborhood Association to
complete a master plan for the project, which is scheduled
for completion in the fall of 1999. The renovation will
focus on repairing walls and paths, assessing existing
plantings and making the park more suitable for modern­day
functions such as festivals, rallies and concerts. The
park is the site of the annual Do Da Day Festival, which
brings 15,000 to 20,000 people to the park on a single
day. A charrette was held on January 29 to prornote public
participation in the design process.
For more information about ASLA anniversary events and
programs, see Details of Interest and the upcoming
Fall/Winter 1999 issue.
Phenix City has recently completed a new 2,000-foot
riverwalk along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. The
landscaped path meanders between two bridges linking
Alabama and Georgia, one of which will become a
pedestrian walkway when a third bridge is completed in
June 2000. The riverwalk affords spectacular views of the
Chattahoochee and access for fishing. The design team for
the $1,025,000 project included Greg Glass and Christy
Cahalan of the City of Phenix City Planning and
Engineering Department; Bobby Bledsoe, landscape
architect, Montgomery; and Gary GuliaHe, ASLA,
...................... ·G .. r. . a-·ll .. h+·c ...... O.. e-·s'i-·g .. n .................... ·. .
Somerset Group Inc., based in
Madison, has been chosen as the
interactive multimedia provider for
the National Park Service in the
development of CD-ROMs, kiosks,
websites and other interactive
media resources. The firm is currently developing a touch­screen
kiosk for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
designed to inform visitors about the diverse plants and
animals that inhabit the park.
The opening screen shows a line drawing of the variety of
habitats in the park as one moves from the shores of Lake
Michigan inland through dunes, wetlands and forest. By
touching the picture of a plant or animal, the viewer is taken
to secondary screens that present additional photographs
and information on the species, its habitat and preservation
efforts. The visitor also can access a map of the park,
showing where the plant or animal would be found.
Nature was the principal focus throughout the creative
process, says James Caudell, creative director for
Somerset "Our concept was to provide a logical and
structured means to display the information without
sacrificing the feel of the environment it represents. There
are too many interface designs out there that are cold and
sterile. We wanted to get away from that."
Phenix Citys riverwalk as it crosses Holland Creek.
Somerset avoided the sterile feel of many kiosk interfaces by
utilizing natural elements and pen-and-ink-inspired artwork.
The target audience determined the navigation and
intuitive factors of the kiosk. "Our staff recruited people of
various ages and profeSSions to beta test our work," says
Chad Gipson, chief animator and programmer. "We
watched them interact with the touch screen and
determined the weak links in the work. If people from five
to 65 don't understand the interface or can't find what they
are looking for, then the whole kiosk is useless. We are too
close to the project to determine its effectiveness. That's
why it's critical to test and research your work on the very
people who will be using it."
Chief creative officer and designer of the Dunes interface
was Don Dickey and additional programming was
provided by Carol Rives. A
landscape architect, Phenix City. The riverwalk provides stunning views of the nearby Chattahoochee River.
DesignAlabama 6
ACDPtUpdate The Alabama Community Design Program's Most Recent Effort
This view of the spiUway at Riverdale Mill is one of many spectacular views of the river. Recommendations include recapturing the city's
connection to the river and capitalizing on the amenities it provides.
The City of Valky was established in 1980 by bringing together four hi.~toric
textile miU communities. In the nearly two declUks since incorporation, Valky
has madR great strides to preserve the quality of life established by the mills
and to maintain a sense ofidentity in each ofthefour distinct villages.
DesignAlabama~'i' invo/vem£.>llt l1-'ith \lalk."1! be,qan in
June <?f'1998 nh(!}] jl1aJ1ha Caro. VClll.ey ci~v c/eJk,
attended the initial YOlfr Tbun Alabama leadership
Iraining l!'Orkr;hop (seeDesignA{ahama, ~Pal1/Wznfer
1998), A jJresel1tafirm hy Franklin SeIze}:
lJesignJUabama-:r; executili(> directDl~ sparked Cat()~'\
interest hI- (heAlabama Cmnl1mnity Design
Program (ACDP). and she htlS /1(!(>n in...~'tnmwJ7tal in
hringing it to Valley.
Team leader GbeJ}"'/ il101;e,an visited Valley several
times over a period afsix months If?ading up to the
charrette, meeting uHth cif;F leaders and residellts to
as')ess issues and opportunities for improvement in
the communi(F. 77Je arril'al q( our eight-member
team on iHarch 17, 1999, initiated an fntense,four­day
stU(~F which bUep,rated the collection (?( data
from inten/iell/~,). obseroations and general dL\·CllS­sion
with VaJ/ey~') leaders.
The resulting rep0l1, presented to Valle.}' residents at
ajbllozp-up meeting.1une 17, represents ClI1 interdis­Clplil1aJY
uision q(thefuture q( Valle.y a.. ). intelpreted
hy the volunteer e.'".tpeI1s on tlu? ACDP tearn.
77Jis team icienttfied three strate,p,ic initialiuesfnr tbe
East Alabama communit)"':
Execute design improvements to key
road connections:
Since Valk>J! co11.."is! ...-. qf the mill villa,p,es aJul the
road" that connect them, the visual character of
these road" is a most impOltant aspect qf the
ci(l"S image and idenli~y Few l.lisitors. the design
character qf the road" L" tbe .first in zp,·ession qf
V"alley, an impres.:::,ion which is 1a."Ung - good
or had, pleasant or unpleasant. For Valkj.·
re..r;,ident.s, a qualif:}' image - JXJrl1e of good
design character~ is a point q( pnae that
rqf1ects and embodies the value qf the (:0111-��mllni~)!
to its residents.
Recapture the Ph)'sicai cOllnection
to the nearby Chattahoochee River:
The Chattahoochee River is centra} to the his/o­ty
q{ Vall~v. l/11/0I1unatefv.. tbe connection
IJetlJ.'eell the river and the settlement wbose
creation it alloLL.'ed has diminished Duel' time.
77...,e river is still an important recreational
amenity to mallY, but even tb,:) integral aspect
qf life in tbe cOlnmllni(J' has Changed in
recent times u.'Uh the creation qf newjacilities
jarfber inland. It is imp0l1ant for Vall~)! to
reconnect to the riuer as much as possible.
Background: A plan of Shawmut, one of Valley's four historic mill villages.
000
The site of Valley's old airport on the banks of the river is an ideal location for additional recreational opportunities and a municipal nursery.
Auburn
U~""c,"ity
by Laura Quenelle
R¢bO.tTrcot
JoccsGo,f
Co"''"''
CoI:av,ay Ga,<Ic""
P,"""'.¢"J~IJ'".G'''
Valley occupies a privileged location on the banks: of the
Chattahoochee River at the gateway to Alabama.
Further enhance the newry con­structed
Rails-to-Trails program'
valley':" RaiLr;;-lo-Irails prqject is a most Signifi­cant
(lddition to the communiZv In linking the
four bis/on·c mills, tbe trail provides immediate
recreational opportunities plus tbe potential to
create a Historic Atill Trail to "tell the stOJY"· qf
the mills and /he communities u:bich were cre­ated
atOll nd them.
The ACOP team included OesignAlabama staff and the
(of/owing vo/unleers: Chery! Morgan, AlA, team leader,
professor of Architecture. Auburn University; Kimberly
Harden. A/A. Ale? archNecf and planner. Alabama
Historical Commission; Dawn Landholm. senior planner,
East Afabama Regional Pfanning and Development
CommiSSion: David Pearson. ASLA, landscape architect.
Nimrod Long & Associates; Jason Fondren, consurtan!,
Birmingham Regional Pfanning Commission: and Bruce
Lanier. fourth-year student in Auburn UniversHy's Schoof
of Architecture.
For a copy of the comp!eie DesignValley report
piease call (800) 849~9543.
7 Volume IX, No. II
DesignA!abama B
By Philip Morris
Photography by Charles Beck
tuned collaboration between interior designers and architects.
Gresham, Smith and Partners introduced a central drum as Q hinge between the CUf'/ed and rectilinear portions of Building Two. The employee lounge (lower left) is a two-starj
space connected to Building One via a bridge. Visitor entrance is through the recessed courtyard on the right.
The drum is expressed on the interiar through the use of black ceramic tile cladding. Light-jinished wood sUrfaces help warm interior spaces.
The lobby of Building Two, intended to serve as a central gathering/meeting place for SouthTrust Bank's new Wildwood campus, integrates forms ond materials from the architecture with interior features such as the gridded maple paneling
that follows the curve of the stair. The gridded window looks out to the entry courtyard.
Interior design is a term that covers a wide range
of endeavors. Covering a chair with fabric or a wall
with paint comes to mind most often. But if you
are a client like South Trust Bank, developing a large new
suburban campus building in Birmingham with a complex
mix of users, the interior designers on the team do much
more than specify fabric and colors.
The Birmingham office of Gresham, Smith and Partners
designed Building Two, a 204,OOO-square-foot structure, at
SouthTrust's new campus at Wildwood off Lakeshore Drive
near Interstate 65, as wen as the adjoining Building One, a
check-processing center. "We were involved from the start
in the programming - determining how much space the
various user groups needed and how they would relate to
each other - so the floor plates were determined by the
interior design program," says Melanie Morgan, IIDA. who
led the interiors part of the team. And a true team effort
it was, working back-and-forth as the project evolved.
As the architects proceeded with the building design,
the interior designers focused on how existing and new
furnishings would work within the spaces. An initial concern
was whether standard work stations used by the client
would work with the curved shape that the architects want ~
ed to introduce to make Building Two a centerpiece for the
campus. They fit fine, the interior designers determined,
because the curve is so graduaL
Floor-by-floor, area-by-area the interior designers responded
to the architects' plans to determine not only how the building
would accommodate users when it opened, but also how
adaptable it would be to change. Several key issues emerged:
• The major decision to set most private offices toward
the core and open work stations along the window
walls keeps views open and layouts more flexible. It
already has proven its worth.
• Testing interior layouts also made clear that the
arrangements needed by SouthTrust departments and
their eight-by-eight-fuot work stations meant a standard
20-by-20-foot column spacing would not be enough.
• High-density filing would be needed in different
departments and in varied places over time, but
providing support throughout would be cost prohibi-tive.
So the interior design layout specifies, in advance,
appropriate places on each floor where such weight
can be placed.
As the architectural form and materials of the building
were developed, the interior designers responded. Gresham
Smith's senior design principal, Bill Jordan, AlA, points to
the key architectural features: the glass¥clad curve (men-tioned
earlier); a dramatic, gridded silver-finish wall that
slices past the entry into the core; the black ceramic-tiled
drum at the core; a rectangular block; and the open wedge
of courtyard that penetrates to the central entry. These
dynamic elements serve to emphasize the focal role of
Building Two with existing and planned structures ranged
around it.
Interior designer Morgan says, "We wanted these
strong features and selected materials to corne into
the building, so the waH comes through the entry in the
same, material, and wherever the drum is exposed on the
inside, it is clad with the same textured black tile." The
geometries are repeated, too, with curves and wedges
incorporated where appropriate - often playfully.
At the same time, the interior designers do what they
do so well, namely, bringing warmth and high-touch char-acter
to Building Two. "It was important that the interior
be clean and contemporary, but we still wanted it to be
9 Volume IX. No. II
comfortable, so we introduced wood and leather that look nice to touch,
not cold," Morgan notes. At the same time, metallic paint finishes were
used on some walls and columns to enhance architectural character.
Gresham Smith principle~in-charge for the project, Jim Griffo, AlA,
IIDA, who as both an architect and interior designer embodies the
firm's determined effort to integrate a wide spectrum of design in projects,
points with special pride to the bright-and-airy feeling, two-story employee
lounge at Building Two that looks out to the entry court and across a
landscaped area to Building One. A white vinyl tile floor reflects light
white a band of black tile traces a gentle curve brought in from the court~
yard. An inside wan clad in a grid of light-finished maple paneling creates
a refined, custom look, but all materials are standard. On a modest budget,
a really elevated sense of design has been realized.
"As a client and user, we feel the designers and architects did a really
good job of combining a variety of materials, shapes and colors to make a
workplace that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional," says Mike
Riley, who oversees facilities for SouthTrust. "We especially like the light in
the employee lounge and the placement of the conference rooms on the
other side of the courtyard so people from the other buildings can access
them without going through office areas."
The SouthTrust Wildwood Building Two recently received an Alabama
International Interior Design Association award. It was juried in
Washington, DC, though one of the jurors moved to disqualify it because
there weren't any rugs and accessories in view. The full scope of interior
design, obviously, remains to be understood. This project is not a bad
place to start .•
DesignAlabama 10
FOURTH FLOOR
Gresham, Smith and Partners' interior designers tested the architects proposed curving walls to be sure work stations
would be compatible. To keep an open character, open work stations are ranged along the glass exterior walls with
closed offices placed on the interior.
Courtyard
Employee Lounge
The ground-level floor plan illus­trates
the relationship between the
employee lounge, which serves the
whole complex, and the adjacent
courtyard. Conference spaces (right
center) serving all buildings flank
the other side of the courtyard and
can be reached without entering
office areas.
rban space shaped by buildings may seem like something from the past, a nos-talgic
longing for the piazzas where travelers love to linger in European cities.
But the American city has this sort of space as part of its history. Think of any
courthouse square, or Main Street. As the decline of Main Street or downtown has drained the life from many towns and cities,
the appreciation for such shared public "rooms" may also have waned.
However, the possibility of recovering or even making new urban spaces congenial to human life
remains. Even with buildings on its west side gone, Mobile's Bienville Square retains its appeal. Birmingham's down-at-the-heels
Five Points South, a roughly circular urban space shaped by a variety of buildings, was first rediscovered by a young
generation raised in the suburbs. Similarly, Homewood's pedestrian downtown, an envelope of street space with a distinctive
curve that stays in everyone's memory, has been upgraded and thrives as a part of community life despite nearby shopping malls.
It may have seemed a lost art, but buildings can still be arranged and designed to create meaningful,
welcoming outdoor public rooms. We present here three architectural projects designed to shape - not just occupy - space.
• On the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, a new building and an
addition to an existing structure are treated as an ensemble framing an urbane new plaza.
• In downtown Birmingham, a new corporate headquarters responds to existing buildings
creating a pleasantly scaled outdoor room along a major street.
• A large new federal courthouse nearing completion in Montgomery curves its classical
facade around a plaza, a focal point in a largely shapeless edge of downtown.
These may not be fully charged spaces animated by diverse uses like those described earlier, but they
have a palpable presence. They serve to remind us that satisfying urban places cannot be assembled from architecture engaged
only in its own form-making. Whether driven by a larger plan or simply the potential in an existing context, only buildings
thought through with a sense for shaping a larger place will deliver - if that only means making a decent street wall.
A New Campus Ellipse and The Energen Exception by Philip Morris with photographs by John O'Hagan; Emerging in Montgomery by Philip
Morris with photographs by Rus Baxley.
11 Volume IX. No. II
The addition to the Ferguson Student Center (far right) and the new Student Services Building have curving facades that give shape to a new plaza between the buildings. For the Ferguson
addition loggia, KPS Group repeated the modern architectural lines a/the original while introducing a playa/light and shadow and a mare human scale.
OesignAlabama 12
[A New Campus Ellipse]
The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa campus escaped the worst of the 1960s and
'70s era when many universities forsook traditional quad-based campus planning for
modem, random, suburban-style expansion. A recently completed project inserts an
example of the older space-making placement of buildings where the idea of a larger
order had been missing.
Designed by KPS Group of Birmingham, the project is actually a pair of buildings thai
wrap around a new elliptical plaza. One is a 26,OOO-square-foot addition to the Ferguson Student Center. The other is a new 61,000-
square-foot Student Services Building. Together with the space between, the ensemble establishes an axial focus at the north end of
the new Crimson Promenade pedestrian mall (formerly a street) intended to link this part of the campus with the main quadrangle to
the south.
A late 1960s modernist building, the Ferguson Student Center presented a none-too­welcoming
face to the campus. The KPS design (which began as a project to warm the building interiors and provide a food court,
bookstore extension, new game room, etc.) solves that with a concave two-story arcade and a powerfully scaled new entrance pavil��ion.
Here the architectural language and detailing are more contemporary, to work with the existing building, but the play of light and
shadow and a richer level of detail make the center more inviting.
The site plan illustrates the plaza shaped by the addition and new building along with the
paving pattern and tree locations.
Pavilions at each end of the Student Services Building are subtly animated with contrasting
brick patterns. This end of the plaza will connect to the planned Crimson Promenade.
Across the plaza. the Student Services Building reflects the con­cave
curve and massing, but here the architectural character is more traditional in
response to nearby Comer Hall. This building consolidates registration. financial aid,
records and other functions in one location. As mandated for all new buildings on the
campus, the buildings are predominately red brick with precast concrete.
"Both buildings have the same pattern and rhythm," says project
architect Hugh Thornton. "So along with the shape, they make a very strong space." In
addition to serving the daily life of the campus, the plaza also will serve as venue for special
events and small concerts.
The University of Alabama has, over the past decade or so, rein­forced
its campus character with landscape enhancement and architectural coordination.
The "idea of campus" has taken proper precedence, with a coordinated hierarchy of
spaces. The Ferguson Student Center addition, Student Services Building and the space
they enclose adds an urbane focus to the whole. [aJ
For the new Student Services BUilding, the architects employed a
more traditional language in brick and cast stone responsive to nearby
Comer Hall and the historic character of the University of Alabama
campus. Landscape architects Nimrod Long & Associates collaborated
on the deSign of the plaza.
13 Volume IX. No. II
Both the plaza and projecting wings of the new Energen headquarters in downtown Birmingham respond to the court and projecting wings of the Tutwiler Hotel directly across 21st Street (foreground).
DesignA!abama 14
[The Energen Exception]
Holding to the building line and avoiding too many plazas and setbacks is a good
urban design rule, and the City of Birmingham applies it under its design review
process. The new Energen Plaza corporate headquarters is an exception - and a
successful one.
Designed by Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates of Atlanta, the seven­story,
130,OOO-square-foot building is fronted by a granite-paved plaza bracketed at the corners by small, rectilinear gardens. "Because
of the site's position relative to the Tutwiler Hotel across 21 st Street, the Birmingham Public Library with its corner entrance and the
original library cater-corner across Park Place, we felt justified in making a kind of event along the otherwise uniform street wall," says
project architect Milo L. Meacham.
The architects took the response to context further. The granite-finished concrete facade
has a mid-section highlighted with attenuated piers that emphasize verticality. The more solid tower elements framing the center ele­ment
step forward, Similar to the profile of the 1913-vintage Tutwiler and its original entry court. This bracketing on opposite sides of
21 st Street shapes the space into a true "urban room." The monumental art deco-inspired Energen also evokes the Jefferson County
Courthouse one block north.
Architect William A. Gilchrist, director of planning, engineering and permitting for the
City, worked closely with Smallwood, Reynolds. He had some concern that the plaza, which due to the slope comes out of the ground
at its south end, would have the off-putting effect of a raised plaza. But the steps, though monumental, are not steep, and at the end
facing the library the plaza is at sidewalk level. A loggia at the entry creates a transition from plaza to building entry and provides an
appealing backdrop for the plaza.
This view looking up 21st Street illustrates how the modest setback of Energen Plaza sets off the carner entrance of the
existing Birmingham Public Library. The gray granite aggregate panel cladding also harmonizes with nearby structures.
A study of context shaped the development of the building and plaza
which occupies the shaded space at the center of the drawing.
Meacham fully agrees with current urban design emphasis on
maintaining the street wall in urban settings. "If you compare Lever House in New York
City when its plaza was a stunning exception on Park Avenue to what it looks like today
with adjacent buildings all setback too, you see the danger in architects wanting to have
their buildings set off by plazas," he says. "It really is up to the design review agencies
to hold firm on the rule, even while they give consideration to exceptions."
Not far from Energen's headquarters is a fine example of the
virtue of the build-to line at work. When the SOM-designed SouthTrust Tower was erect­ed
in the mid-1980s, some people regretted it was not set back in a plaza. But, in fact,
the tower's firm placement at the corner and its mostly granite exterior provides appro­priate
enclosure for the modern-idiom plaza fronting the original 1969 First National­Southern
Natural Gas tower by Welton, Becket & Associates.
The Energen building plaza, like its predecessor at 20th and Fifth
Ave. North, succeeds primarily as an architectural space, not as one that invites diverse
urban usage (Linn Park is only a few hundred feet away). In addition to setting off the
new headquarters, the modest space makes a positive response to its neighbors.
Happily, Colonial Properties, developers of the project for Energen, have opened up the
formerly solid concrete facade of the building facing the new plaza on the south to cre­ate
a new entry. One good move deserves another. [aj
The footprint plan by architects Smallwood,
Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates shows
how the plaza transitions through an inset
loggia to the building's public lobby space.
15 Volume IX, No. II
An aerial photograph by Rus Baxley shows the arc of the large addition to the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse in downtown Montgomery. When completed, it will wrap a foreground plaza.
DesignAlabama 16
[Emerging In Montgomery]
A large new addition to the federal courthouse in Montgomery to be completed next year
introduces a powerful spatial feature on a once marginal edge of downtown. It also
illuminates, at larger scale, the missed opportunity for the capital city to give a public
shape to its historic core.
Rather than follow a Washington, DC, model with height-regulated buildings filling out blocks and
defining Dexter Avenue and other streets in deference to the Capitol, a series of recent office buildings go their own way - occupy­ing
space, not shaping it. The great semi-circular plaza wrapped by the new 315,OOO-square-foot courthouse designed by architects
Barganier Davis Sims of Montgomery shows what might have been.
Linked at one end to the 1932 classical revival building, originally a post office and now a federal
courthouse named for civil rights-era judge Frank M. Johnson, the new courthouse design evolved from a complex site and a chal­lenging
program. Two triangular blocks, resulting from the juncture of two historic street grids meeting at nearly a 45-degree angle,
were acquired and the street between closed to create the site. Providing the needed square footage while respecting the height of the
existing courthouse led to the curved configuration.
"We saw this as an opportunity to knit together the historic grids and to terminate Molton Street with
a plaza that would give a new focus to this part of downtown," says architect Lee Sims. "The curve keeps the much larger new build­ing
from overwhelming the original, and the simplified classical design creates a backdrop for the space."
Containing a total of 14 courtrooms and support facilities, and room for an additional four more
courtrooms, the six-story building has its mass modulated by a two-level rusticated base, a three-level middle section with windows
A site and landscape plan delineates the plaza with its circular core and gridded paving extending to Church Street. The front portion of
the former Greyhound Bus Terminal fronting Court Street (left center), a civil rights-era landmat1<, has been preserved as part of the project.
Architects Barganier Davis Sims of Montgomery decided on Ihe shape to complement, not
overwhelm, the existing courthouse. They also employed a simplified classical language to
extend its presence.
recessed behind panels that evoke a colonnade and an attic story stepped back above a
projecting cornice. "We employed classical massing and proportions, but it is an
abstracted classical - something like John Russell Pope's work in Washington,"
Sims explains.
Just behind the original courthouse building stands a portion of
the Greyhound Bus Terminal preserved for its tie to civil rights history. Here a smaller
plaza would have provided access to the principal plaza, but security requirements pre­cluded
access. "We would have preferred movement between the spaces, and I'm con­cerned
that without the link the plazas will be less animated," the architect notes.
Sims also is disappointed that the planned axial thrust of Molton
Street toward the main public plaza has been disrupted by Troy State University'S deci­sion
to close the street and turn it into a pedestrian zone. A circular drive with a tower
emerging in the middle of the block does not align with the original street or the new
courthouse plaza to the south. The paint seems clear: Without a larger urban design at
work, individual projects, though well-intentioned, may not add up.
Still, Sims hopes that the scale and power of the new courthouse
and the public space it defines will serve as a stimulus to new building in this neglected
part of downtown. For that, new development need only re-establish the space of the street
to succeed. raj
The overlay pattern indicates Molton Sireet
which was vacated to create the site for the
courthouse expansion.
17 Volume IX, No. II
Designer~Profile
Bringin
to a
A Partner in Education with Athens
Intermediate School, CSC Pinnacle pro­vided
t-shirts featuring Bottcher's
design to each student.
DesignAlabama 18
Bi Ideas
rna I Town by Laura Ouenelle
While it's doubtful dlat anyone
would cunsider Ailiens, Ala., a mecca
for high design, Chad Buttcher, in­house
graphic designer fur lucally
based cumputer consultants CSC
Pinnacle, has proven iliat big iliings
can come out of a small tuwn Just ask
the Tennessee Valley Advertising
Federation. Bottcher's wurk for CSC
Pinnacle and his freelance client<; has gar­nered
him more ilian 50 Addys and cita­tions
in ilie last five years and ilie honor
of being named Art Director of ilie Year
and Illustrator of ilie Year for 1999.
'You don't necessarily have to
live in ilie big city anymore," says
Bottcher. "Technology is enabling you tu
live basic"dlly wherever you want and du
ilie type work dlat you wuuld be able to
do in a bigger dty."
Bottcher started out on dle typi­cal
C"dreer paili. After graduating from
Auburn University in 1987, he spent rwo
years wiili ilie Birmingham ad fum of
Holland & Holland. In 1989 he married a
Limestone County native and reluctantly
accepted a poSition widl Intergraph
Corp., a Huntsville-based computer tech­nology
company. Bottcher would have
preferred tu remain in Binningham, but
he> wife, a schoolteacher, was hesitant
ahour starting on ilie bottom rung in ilie
Binningham city school system.
Going from an ad agency envi­ronment
to doing internal cOlporate com­munications
was not an easy transition
for Bottcher. "Fur ilie fIrst six monilis, I
Pinnacle
Bottcher's first project for CSC Pinnacle was to redesign
a corporate logo for use on inter-company memos and
mailings. It highlights the firm's global scope and its
main product, people.
iliuught ]' d made ilie biggest miswke uf
my life. I was totally out of my environ­ment."
But his five years wiili Intergraph
proved to be a valuable learning
experience. At Holland & Holland,
Bottcher had used traditional cut-and­paste
design techniques. "Intergraph
forced me into ilie cligital desktup arena.
It really was a sptinghoard for me to be
where I am now."
While still at Intergraph,
Bottcher accepted a freelance commis­sion
to redeSign a logo for CSC Pinnacle,
a young Ailiens-lYased software consulting
finn. Pinnacle founding parmers, Carl Hunt
and Steve &'ard, and dle president and
CEO, Alston Nuah, were so pleased widl
Bottcher's work dlat when iliey le'amed
he \,vas intervie\ving with Birmingham's
Lewis Advertising, iliey utfered him a full­time
position. "I was hesitant because I
dl0Ught Lewis would be an opportunity
to go back into advertising design railier
ilian ilie closed corporate market." But
Bottcher decided to wke he> chances in
Ailiens and accepted Pinnacle's uffer.
CSC Pinnacle is a corpurate part­ner
of PeopleSoft Software. Eswblished in
1990, Pinnacle \vurks widl clients a!Dund
ilie world tu implffi1ent PeupleSoft sys­tem.
s in ilie areas of human resources,
fmance and manufacturing. Employing
ahout 60 peuple when Bottcher came on
ixJatd wee Ye'ars agu, it now has mure
than 400 consultants serving clients like
He'dliliSouili, Bell Adantic, Enterprise
Rent-A-Car and Fruit uf dle Loom.
Since Pinnacle does nut provide
a wngible product its clients can tuuch
and see, but mther ilie knuwledge and
experience of its consultants, ilie compa­ny
recugnized ilie need to have frrst-rate
marketing materials and a top-notch
graphic designer. "They gave me an
upportunity tu du some really good
work," says Bottcher. In addition to ilie
in-house opportunities provided by
Pinnacle, ilie frrm has encouraged
Buttcher tu seek out freelance work
"You can only do so much within a box.
TIley telt it [tieelancingi would keep me
fresh and happy - keep me going."
This freedum has not only bene­fited
Bottcher, it has afforded civic groups
and small businesses in the Ailiens are'd
access tu graphic materials of ilie highest
quality. His poster design for a charity
l1..1111mage sale is an excellent example.
Imte'dd of dle typical hand-printed flier or
clip art, Bottcher's award-winning
design fe'dtures bright colors and a 1960s
retro appeal. Buttcher also has done pro
hono work for the luc"dl Boy Scuut
Cuuncil, his church and local schools, in
addition to fieeiance corpurate clients in
nuM Alabama.
As computer technole)",),
advances, designers have dle opportunity
to live and work where iliey choose and
still compete wiili larger, more established
markets. Chad Bottcher and esc Pinnacle
are proving iliat creativity has no geL!­graphical
houndaries. ""
OCTOBER 24
ApPLE ANNIE'S RUMMAGE SALE
NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY
",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,., ..... ,,,,,,,,, .. ,,,, .. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,., .. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,.,,,,,,,,,,,,,",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
ATHENS, ALABAMA 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM
ADMISSION IS $ 1 PER PERSON. CHILDREN 1 2 & UNDER ARE FREE.
ALL PROC!:;!;;O" ... ·"LL ~H:; DONAT"O ,0 LOCAl-. CHAR"''''''': HOPE P'.l'CE 6< A"['<LNS'UMr.:STONl: Has"":;:,"
For a recent charity rummage sale, Bottcher's poster design featured bright colors coupled with
a retro look, a far cry from typical hand-printed fliers.
The patches Bottcher designed for the
Greater Alabama Council of the Boy
Scouts of America, the largest such
council in the nation, have received a
great response from Scouts and troop
leaders, as well as the Tennessee
Valley Ad Federation which gave it the
Judges Award of Excellence for 1998.
alai/ding
Bottcher not only created logos and marketing material for Red Klay,
an outgrowth of CSC Pinnacle which services the manufacturing
sector, he also named it. Inspiration came from the company
founder's ties to the cotton industry (cotton grows in red clay) and
because, in Bottcher's words, "in the process of creating a final
product, you mold and shape things in a model form before you actu­ally
fabricate and create the final product."
In 1995, CSC Pinnacle purchased three buildings adjacent to Athens' town square for new office space. The
largest of the three and a local landmark, the Hendricks Hardware Building had been damaged by fire in 1994.
The restoration of the building earned Pinnacle and Jones & Herrin Architects an Alabama Council American
Institute of Architects Award of Merit in 1997. This open house invitation by Bottcher celebrates the building's
new life and new use. 19 Volume IX, No. II
Community.Profile
The power of
an urban design plan
to give shape
to the character of
a place begins
to show in downtown
Huntsville.
Huntsville's
I·.1.· I,I. ;'.·
j: - -:~
Huntsville's Downtown Master Plan recommended an improved link between Big Spring Park and the heart
of downtown, realized with grand steps and terraces leading to the square (visible in background).
LOR's Downtown Master Plan for Huntsville.
DesignA!abama 20
Urban Turnaround
In the decade since it was completed in 1989, the
Downtown Master Plan for the City of Huntsville prepared by
Land Design/Research Inc. (LDR) has inspired major public
investment, especially the enhancement and extension of Big
Spring Park. Several new infill developments, all intended to
reinforce the historic core as the center of community life, are
completed or underway.
Huntsville Director of Planning Dallas Fanning outlines
key elements of the plan:
.Reinforce the Central Business District as the
historical and cultural center and enhance it with public
streetscape and parks .
• Pursue public/private partnerships to leverage
public investment.
-Concentrate public institutions and attractions in the
historic core to intensify use.
oBring business and office development back
downtown.
-Work to increase overall density and diversity of use
to reach a critical mass of activity.
The plan recommended construction of the new Huntsville Museum of Art
on the downtown side of Big Spring Park to firm up its edge and bring
activity to the area.
Huntsville Mayor Loretta Spencer and
Director of Planning Dallas Fanning
stand near the new on-street parking
the mayor had created on the Williams
Street edge of Big Spring Park.
By Philip Morris
Photographs by John O'Hagan
These recommendations are intended to counteract both
the usual shift to suburban growth experienced by most cities,
as well as the too-suburban looseness introduced to the urban
core under Huntsville's earlier urban renewal effort.
"We have followed the plan, but not necessarily the exact
building footprints," Fanning says. An example? Following on Big
Spring Park improvements, including removal of an existing
street to gracefully connect the broader area of the park to the
heart of downtown, the new Huntsville Museum of Art was set
on the downtown side of the park where a senior citizen center
once stood.
The plan by LDR, a well-known Maryland-based planning
and landscape consultant with many successful projects in the
southeast, had argued: ''The art museum has the opportunity to
provide a dramatic new building within Big Spring Park. This
would further enhance the park and the museum as people
places for all the citizens of Huntsville." As executed under the
design of architect Bill Peters of Bill Peters Architects of
Huntsville, the museum orients its main entrance to Church
Street, facing downtown and establishing a firm urban edge for
the park.
The process hasn't been a snap - it took five votes by
the city council to approve the removal of the street to enhance
Big Spring Park - but there is significant momentum showing
now. Just down the street from the Huntsville art museum, a new
building for EarlyWorks, a hands-on history museum operated
as part of Constitution Village, fills a former parking lot.
Designed by Goodrum-Knowles Architects, it has the same
strong urban presence as the museum and benefits from the
city's extension of coordinated streetscape improvements along its
three street edges.
Elected two-and-a-half years ago, Mayor Loretta Spencer
has pressed forward with the public/private partnership idea and
other aspects of enlivening downtown. When Sirsi Corp., a com­puter
firm located in the suburbs, wanted to renovate a row of
three historic buildings a block north of Courthouse Square for
its offices, the City developed the parking and covered the cost
of sidewalk improvements - the latter in accordance with the
1993 downtown streetscape plan also by LDR.
A computer firm, Sirsi, renovated three historic downtown buildings as its head­quarters.
The City of Huntsville assisted with parking and streetscape improve­ments
consistent with its master plan.
21 Voiume IX, No. II
Under construction on a prominent corner across from
the museum is an eight-story structure that reflects both the
push for a more urban-feeling downtown Huntsville and the
City's entrepreneurial push to make things happen. It is a com­bination
office building and parking deck designed so that even
though floors two through six are all parking, the full street
exposure reads like an office building.
"It was a complex design on a tight site;' explains archi­tect
Russ Hale of Birmingham's HKW Associates. "We get an
urban presence along the street with the ground floor occupied
by Colonial Bank served by a prominent corner entrance. For
the parking levels we use the same outside wall as the three
office floors above with a reflective glass so you can't see the
parked cars." Upper office floors have their own lobby access
from the rear, but during bank hours tenants and visitors can
reach elevators from the street.
Fanning explains, "We don't want any more parking
decks set next to office buildings, especially those where you
can see the cars exposed on multiple levels:'
HKW and landscape architect Mike Donnelly of Smith
Engineering in Huntsville helped convince the City to remove
one lane of the wide, high-speed Williams Street to create a
landscaped foreground for the building, but the turn lane they
also wanted to eliminate will stay. (These wide auto-oriented
streets form daunting obstacles to pedestrian movement
between the heart of downtown and some nearby areas,
though the streetscape plan calls for certain segments of them
to be retrofitted with landscaped medians to reduce the
expanse of paving.)
This same project represents a complex blending of
public and private involvement. The City owns the land and the
parking deck component; the developer, a joint venture between
Samples Properties of Huntsville and Inkana Properties of
Birmingham, owns the office space and leases the parking deck
back from the City. (There is some ground-floor metered space
at the rear for general daytime use.)
Thus, the City leverages parking to get development
which increases valuation and advances the downtown plan's
goal of greater density and critical mass. And because the park­ing
is made available to the public after 6 p.m. and on weekends,
it helps serve the new art museum and other nearby attractions.
There are other active projects underway in line with the
stated goals of the master plan. Huntsville Utilities headquarters
fronting Big Spring Park is being renovated to include general
office use with a street segment between the building and the
park removed to improve the connection. Nearby, a sprawling
two-story structure that housed the relocated parking and transit
authority is up for redevelopment. The City hopes to attract
restaurants and other active uses for what was ground-floor
office space, animating the edge of the park.
Also, the City is currently working with a developer to see
through redevelopment of the old Huntsville Times building, a
1920s skyscraper clad in glazed terra cotta. Here, and else­where,
it is hoped downtown residential will be introduced.
Already, the Twickenham and Old Town historic districts contigu­ous
with downtown provide a base of some 2,500 residents
within an easy walk.
Huntsville has stayed away from the sort of design review
that the City of Birmingham has applied to selected districts
over the past 15 or so years. Overall, Fanning says the urban
design goal is to have a larger number of moderate-scale new
buildings to fill gaps, increasing density but with no new build­ings
taller than 10 stories. The nearby Regions Bank is set back
suburban-style with a parking lot between it and the street,
~--~.----.-----
The new eight-story Colonial Bank Building, under construction on a prominent corner across Irom the Huntsville Museum 01 Art, includes live levels 01 parking
to serve the museum and other attractions on weekends. The ground levelleatures a distinctive corner entry and the bank branch.
DesignAlabama 22
contrary to current build-to standards. But most recent infill pro­jects,
such as the new Robinson-Humphries office by Crow and
Associates, come forward toward the street in an urbane man­ner
to give pedestrian scale and shape to the public realm.
Though Mayor Spencer, at the time a nonprofit volunteer,
had earlier reservations about aspects of the LOR Downtown
Master Plan, her instincts seem convergent with its primary
goals. She had noticed, for example, that while Big Spring Park
was used well for special events, it did not regularly draw casual
visitors. So she had a lane of moving traffic along Williams
Street at the park's south edge replaced with metered parking
spaces and picnic tables set in the park, increasing such visitation.
She may not think of this as urban design, but tempering
too-fast, too-wide urban thoroughfares through urban cores with
curbside parking has become one of the techniques the new
urbanism movement advances to humanize the city. With more
attention to such matters, and continued application of its mas­ter
plan principles and streets cape enhancements, Huntsville
seems destined to recover the innate urbanity it offered when it
was only a modest-size town.
Which brings us to the Courthouse Square. Are those
urban renewal-era curving streets and suburban mall appoint­ments
ever coming out? Yes and no, if the City implements the
LOR streets cape plan. It calls for the curved street alignments to
stay, due to cost. But it ingeniously suggests a retrofit to replace
enough paving with simple grass, additional trees, more tradi­tional
street furniture and other changes to transform the space.
The ratio would flip from 70 percent paving/30 percent green to
70 percent green under this plan. The ugly bottom edge of the
modern courthouse in the square would be masked with a hedge.
Paradoxically, for a plan that is pushing density and a
more active urban character, the square would wind up feeling
more like a town green than a mall. But meaningful green space
has always had a place in cities. It is the pointless, shapeless
open space that nearly dissolved Huntsville's core under urban
renewal that the current plan - authentically urban in intent -
seeks to offset.
Huntsville's putting a downtown back together that urban
renewal once suburbanized beyond recognition represents a
telling turnaround among Alabama cities .•
Sreetscape plans call for Huntsville City Hall, which stands aloof like most of the city's urban renewal-era buildings, to be better integrated into its setting.
EarlyWorks, a hands-on museum coordinated with nearby Constitution Village,
fills a former parking lot with a building that defines the traditional street edge.
The historic Twickenham district lies iust beyond.
23 Volume IX, No, II
Historical~Perspectives
Signs a/Life at
by Laura Quenelle
Preservationists and residents of Mobile can breathe a sigh of relief as crews
begin work to rehabilitate Fort Conde Village. This four-square-block residential
area adjacent to the reconstructed Fort Conde was cut off from the rest of down­town
Mobile with the construction of Interstate 10 and its associated ramps and
tunnel in the 1960s. Thus isolated, this cluster of homes has stood vacant for
more than 20 years as one development scheme afler another failed due 10
issues ranging from lax credits 10 zoning laws.
One of the first buildings in the site to be restored, 162 St. Emanuel 51. features original mantels.
stair railings and pocket doors.
The next phase of the project includes the
restoration of the Hall-Ford House (right)
and the Spear-Barter House (next door).
OesignA!abama 24
Fiual~v. it seems tbere is hope jc)r Ibis
jiJlgolten neighborhood as the CitJ} of
"llohile {corks ll'ith del./elopers Lany
Posner cj'Pougbl?CejJ::::i. ,\". Y._ and Dcwid
Brad/e.v q/-HofJ{le to rUJlorate the projJ­erlyPJr
lise m{li}I~V ([s c!lJices. Lcoding
the project, :Vlck Holme:::; III qrl-Jo/m6
([nd Ho/nzes Architects bas e.ytensice
2' experience lrith hL,;;toric jJresercation
2
8
projects including tbe restoratiun (;j'lhe
State Capitol Building.
TtI.'O brad,eted tOlcnhmnes located at
162 and 164 St. Emanuel St. uxre the
)irst to he rehabilitated. The second
phase u·'i/l include tbe llCl!1~Ford l-luuse
and the SjJeclr-Barter Huuse located
direct£v across the street. 71Je Hall-Ford
HOllse. buill in 1836 is the oldest huild­ing
ilt the ['il1age cUld zui!! be the center­piece
oftbe project. Accurding tUJObl1
.sledge,. architectural J.?/~';toriCln lcith the
Mubile Historic Decelopnzellt
Commi~:}ion, the house L~- tbe O1Z(V one
qf its 01Je in the J40bile (l}"['(! and i.,,­/
mowll CIS a mised Creole cottage.
This view from the roof of Mobile's Government Plaza illustrates the isolated location of the village. Road
noise in the village is surprisingly low conSidering that the site is almost entirely encircled by 1-10 and its
associated ramps and tunnel.
This "before" view of 162 S1. Emanuel St. demonstrates the
delapidated condition of the village after 20 years of abandonment.
7be nwst contmeersiaf (f_~l)eu o/lhe pro- Long a higbf:r visible eyesore direct£v
jeu is that lour srnall hOllses focated acUacent to the dOlt'lllO({.'n, the uil/age ~~-
alonp, the l!illClp,es eastern edge u.'ilf he rebirth hCls heen close(}/ wClIched !~Y
mowd/urther'lrUhin the site 10 occupV preservationists. residents and cisitors
lots Ie)! ['acant I~v jJC!SI denzolilioll pro- alike. During nl)' short visit to the site,
jects. 17Je dew/ojJen; plaN to huild {( countless car:; cruised sloldy through
hotel or z'nll on the new(r [,Clcated /o/s. tbe !/e~~hborhood. IlYttefJillg tbe
Elizabeth BroWN, acting director ulrhe progress of the ft'orkmen. One motorist
illa/7ama i-ii:,;/or/<..:a/ Cbmrnr~~'sioll, not(."S­that,
while the commission doe:::,- not
lfslla!{}.' ajJproce q{ JJlu['ing blll"/Clings.
this is ({ _"lJecful c({se. "ll1e houses aeros."
tbe street arc gone. ev\})osfng the/ront of
these houses to bus)' multiple tmin
tracks. The tnost dCtJrwgfng thing, how­eL'e)~
is the elevated lanes qfi-lO u'bich
run to the sOllth alld east (!/Ihe houses.
with cm qij"-ranzp direcl(r ill Iront. ibis
has degraded the visual cmd historic
context (!/"tbe hOllses- the {{'(U· they
are seen a!le! {cork - to the point that
nzoUt"rlg them seerns to be tl {'faNe
option to re:.,tore something 0/ the bis­[
Olie seLtiJl8 Ihl.(j/ or(r.;illo!ly bad."
stopped to oller her encouragement,
e.\1Jfainfng that she and ber busband
botb uz'sit the ['i!lage when they travel to
J1o/Jilejc)i" husiness and are ··c!eligbted
to see signs o/!(!e" a)fer so nlCIJ1Y years
o/ctbandonmeJlt. :fi
Details+of Interest
al!{j/JigNigflts
·Jwid; .. v~~et; 'i
;~J~1;anciri;
··········71lsrJfJTt~{;
A W A
IIDA Awards
R o s
In February the Alabama Chapter of the International Interior
Design Association presented its third biennial Progression
Awards recognizing excellence in interior design.
Best of Competition:
Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff and Brandt LtC
The Garrison Barrett Group Inc.
Merit Awards:
Mercedes-Benz US International Training
and Visitor Center
Gresham, Smith & Partners
McWane Corporate Offices
Moody & Associates
SouthTrust Bank Wildwood Building Two
Gresham, Smith & Partners
Top: Mercedes-Benz US International Training and Visitor Center
Middle.' Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff and Brandt LLC
Bottom left South Trust Bank Wildwood Building Two
Bottom right McWane Corporate Offices
25 Volume IX. No. II
Birmingham Historical Society
1999 Preservation Awards
The Bank of Birmingham-John Hand Building
Architects.' Gresham, Smith and Partners­Mike
Engel, project coordinator
Contractor: The Robins & Morton Group Inc.-Voyd
McLain, superintendent; Lawrence Whatley, project manager
Owners & Developers Jimmy & Martha Taylor, Jimmy
Taylor Jr.
Alabama Theatre Interior Restoration
Owner & Developer The Birmingham Landmarks
Foundation-Cecil Whitmire, general manager
Restorallon Contractor: Evergreene Studio, N. Y.- Jeff Green
Major Sponsor: Arthur C P. Henley, Linn-Henley
Charitable Trust
Curtain Restoration. Bernard Block, designer, and Radio
~ City Music Hall
I
2!
li Charlie Boswell Golf Course, Highland Park
The Bank of Birmingham - John Hand Building Owner/Facilitator: City of Birmingham-Mayor Richard
Arrington; Hershell Hamilton, administrative assistant;
Ferguson Enterprises Inc.
Birmingham Department of Parks & Recreation-Melvin Clark Building
Alabama Theatre Interior Restoration
Miller, director
~ Contractor. Landscapes Unlimited, Lincoln, Neb.-Bill Kubly
l' Course Designer Bob Cupp, Atlanta
1<
c
''5" Ferguson Enterprises Inc .
. ;;
:g Owner Sloss Development Group-Cathy Crenshaw, AI Folger
~
~ Tenant: Ferguson Enterprises Inc.
g,
§ Architect ArchitectureWorks; Gary and Angela Nash
~ Contractor: D. L. Acton Construction Co-Doug Acton
g
~ Clark Building
'6 1£ Owner Lightfoot, Franklin, White LLC
Developer: South pace Properties Inc.-john Lauriello
Architect Moody & Associates-Bob Moody, Jeff
Barton, Stan Corson, Julie Gibbs, Rebecca Moody
Contractor' Charles & Vinzant Construction Co-Andy
Anderson, superintendent; Danny Bowen, project manager
Young Women's Christian Association
Owner & Developer YWCA-Gillian Goodrich, president;
Suzanne Durham, director; Carolyn Howell, project man-
~ ager; Annie Caudle
~ Architect: Giattina Fischer Aycock Architects Inc.-
li Joseph P. Giattina, Marzette Fischer, Simone Early
Charlie Boswell Golf Course, Highland Park Contractor: Bill Harbert Construction Co-Gary Savage,
Ramsay Alternative High School Faculty and Staff
Springville National Register Listing and
Preservation Plan
Citizen Group.' Springville Preservation SOCiety-Charles
Griffin, chairman
Supporl.Town of Springville-Andy Wallace, city council­man;
Alabama Historical Commission-Mary Shell;
Birming,1am Regional Planning Commission-Larry
Watts, director; Ben Changkakoti, planner
DesignAlabama 26
senior project manager; Beth Cramer, project manager;
Dwight Sammons, superintendent
Tax Credit Assistance.' Alabama Historical Commission­Kim
Harden
Transportation Building
Owner & Developer: Elias and Gaynell Hendricks
'" Lender Colonial Bank-Don Giardina, president; Rich
:E '" Humphries, vice president
.!!2 o
~
Special Awards
Roebuck Springs National Register Historic District
Supporters.' Roebuck Springs History Committee-Mrs.
Claude Hearn; Roebuck Springs Neighborhood
Association-Dr. Rodney Tucker, Priscilla Newton, Richard
Rutledge, officers
Nomination.' Birmingham Historical Society-Elizabeth
Simpson Poyner, 1986; New South Consultants, Atlanta­Denise
Messick
Young Women's Christian ASSOCiation
Transportation Building
Linda and Cecil Whitmire
For two decades of dedication to the Alabama Theatre.
Save the Marbles Campaign-Ramsay Alternative
High School
Client. Ramsey faculty and staff
Ramsay Restoration Fund Creation: Irving Kinney Jr.,
Ramsay alumnus
Birmingham
Architect
Receives
National
Recognition
Joseph P. Giattina
Jr., AlA, prinCipal of
Giattina Fisher
Aycock Architects
Inc., was appOinted
to the American Institute of Architects' College of Fellows
at its national convention in Dallas this May. The honor
was awarded to 97 AlA members nationwide who have
made contributions of national significance to the profes­sion
of architecture.
In addition, Giattina was elected president of the National
Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) at
their annual meeting and conference in June in
Charleston. The NCARB is a nonprofit federation of 55
state and territory architectural registration boards in the
United States. The Council administers the Architect
Registration Examination nationwide, provides intern
development programs and NCARB certification, in addi­tion
to other professional developrnent programs.
Big Spring Park, Huntsville
Monte Sana State Park, Huntsville
Government Street. Mobile
Student Advertising Federation Brings
Home STAR Awards
ij SAF@UAH, the local American Advertising Federation
~ College Chapter on the campus of the University of
~ Alabama in Huntsville, was sanctioned only five months
u: g ago but has made a tremendous showing at the 1999
g Seventh District STAR Awards. The STAR Awards recog- 0 l nize student achievement in graphic design, copywriting, !
§ layout, photography and illustration from college students ~
~ in a five-state area. Citations of Excellence were presented 15
~ u
~
11 c
0
0
~ "
"03" c
c
0
0
~ "
'm
'5
iii
i'L
20 ~"
to Katie Preston, Stacy Schuette and Susan
Carlson. Gold Medal Awards went to Stacy Schuette,
Susan Carlson, Eden Johnson, Grace Russell,
Kelvin Gordon and Ellen Springer.
OesignAlabama Publishes Urban
Forestry Primer
DesignAlabama is pleased to announce the release of the
first in a new series of Citizen's Design Primers. Entitled
Urban Forestry and the Community, the guidebook offers a
wealth of information on the irnportance of landscape plan­ning
and design and a set of "best practices" for tree selec­tion,
placement and maintenance. The project was funded
through a grant from the Alabama Forestry Commission
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service's
Urban & Comrnunity Forestry Financial Assistance
Program. For further details and ordering information,
please call the DesignAlabama office at (800) 849-9543.
ASLA Celebrates 100 Years
In 1999, the American Society of Landscape Architecture
(AS LA) is commemorating its 1 DOth anniversary through a
variety of programs to promote the profession of landscape
architecture. Through the 100 Parks, 100 Years program,
the ASLA will provide grants to create or renovate 100
green spaces across the country. The Alabama chapter has
selected Birmingham's Caldwell Park (see Project News,
page 4).
Centennial Medallions will be awarded to landscapes
nationwide that embody the rich history of landscape
architecture. Alabama recipients include Big Spring Park
and Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville; Highland
Avenue, Charles Linn Park and Kelly Ingram Park in
Birmingham; the Civil Rights District and the RSA
Alabama Activity Center and Plaza in Montgomery; and
Government Street in Mobile.
In addition, a commemorative 33-cent stamp honoring
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), the founding father of
landscape architecture and designer of New York's Central
Park, will be released by the United States Postal Service
and a centennial retrospective book will trace the history of
the ASLA. Through the Vision 2099 Challenge, student
landscape arch'ltects are invited to envision the next 100
years of landscape architecture. +
Grisham­Trentham
Lecture
Features
Fashion
Forecaster
On May 5th "cool
hunter" Dee Dee
Gordon, creator of a
national trend-fore­casting
publication, the L Report, delivered the 13th annual
Grisham-Trentham Lecture at Auburn University's School
of Human Sciences.
Delineating what's hot and what's not, her quarterly, mar­keted
to the fashion and advertiSing industries arnong oth­ers,
provides trendsetter and mainstrearn data gathered
through focus groups, man-on-the-street surveys and teen
panels. Respondents provide information on fashion.
music, sports, aspirations, entertainment and artistic
endeavors. The L Report's predictions are forecast one­and-
a-half to two years in advance of trends and are con­sidered
by many advertisers, manufacturers, and retailers
to be the most accurate information on the often ephemeral
youth culture.
m
§
I
~ " '~"
",,0 ::2:
Charles Linn Park, Birmingham
§;
C"D
c
~
Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham
2l
§
~
ill = 0 oc
RSA Alabama Activity Genter and Plaza, Montgomery
27 Volume IX, No. II
Desi nAlabama
Volume IX, Issue II
PUBLIC DESIGN AWARENESS AND EDUCATION
SHAPING PUBLIC SPACE
DesignAlabama Inc. works to increase awareness and value of the design disciplines
that influence our environment. We believr; that the quality of life and
economic growth of this state are enhanced through attention to and
Arch itectu v, investment in good design.
LanrCOf''1 nl
(it may hav.
seemed a lost art
Inte ' ~
but bUildings can
Urt~.
Indu~
still be arranged
and designed to
Gr~~l-create
meaningful ~
F(
welcoming outdoor .bo"'~ "
E11t:./1 IIVVIII pubI ic rooms. H)A PIN G
State A Alabama
r{~~1
~C
«On a modest budget,
a really elevated
N ATIONAL
ENDOWMENT
FOR THE ARTS -
I"'::·E=:·~\~ Inc.. _
ALA BAM A POWER
FOUNDATION
INCOR PO RATED
Alabama Council AIA
sense of design
oa ,... n.'<:;'!-1
has been realized. "
I( OIIS{rJJIUF:/)/qrl
This publicalion was made possible through funding by the conlribulors lisled above.
For additional information about DesignAlabama. please call (800) 849·9543.
PUBLIC SPA C E