As most of us concerned with Birmingham’s urban fabric know, the long-awaited Railroad Park should be open to the public in later this year. It is one of the few major elements of the downtown Master Plan that has come to fruition. Which is why we need a Redevelopment Authority–but that’s a subject for another post.
We, and several other architects, provided Operation New Birmingham with some concept sketches of a hypothetical development bordering the new park. The Birmingham News published the various drawings in an article today and has an online poll asking people to vote for their favorite.
Our sketch was very open-ended and more abstract than the others (and perhaps less accessible to the general public?). I wanted to take the artificial “nature” of the park and contrast it with the artificial “structure” of the architecture, a large concrete frame where solid and transparent surfaces move in and out of the frame.
If nothing else, it’s so rare in this city to have varied design proposals for anything, that I’m pleased to be part of this effort. It will be interesting to see what actually gets developed at the park. Baseball stadium, anyone?
Bhamarchitect's Blog 
Stuff the al.com ballot for Option #1!!
This is so interesting and needed. For those of us who are not involved in city planning but want to be informed and educated, this is a great resource for Birmingham to have! I’m forwarding it!
Kudos. I’m on board for whatever you need to reach your goals. Birmingham has so much potential…and not only downtown. There are areas surrounding the core center that are just begging to be utilized through urban refill.
Sign me up.