The report came out today that HKW, the architecture and planning firm founded in Birmingham in 1994, is shutting its doors due to economic circumstances brought on by the recent recession. Many architecture firms not just in Birmingham, but around the country, are in precarious states as the construction and design industries appear to be among the last to benefit from improvements in the economy.
A strong design community depends on lots of competition, constantly raising the bar. HKW will be missed.
[image of Boy Scouts of America Building, which was a 2005 winner of the American Institute of Architects Merit Award; photo taken by Timothy Hursey]
Bhamarchitect's Blog 
Minor note: The building featured in the photo is the Greater Alabama Council’s “Volunteer Resource Center”, which HKW designed in 2005. The low stone arcade in the background is the council’s headquarters office, designed by Giattina Fisher Aycock in 1994. (Not the first green roof in Birmingham, but the most visible)
Thanks for the additional info.
I just read the article. So sad.
Birmingham is BLESSED and endowed with a high percentage of outstanding architectural firms.
I owe it to all the trophies like Pizitz, the Alabama, Loveman’s, SONAT, the Thomas Jefferson, Mountain Brook and the John Hand, among others, as they’ve probably all inspired our wonderful local architects.
I credit the Empire building. When I was a kid and I found out that if you were the architect you could put big giant letter E’s on top of your Empire Building if you wanted too, that gave me a solid interest.
I only found out later that William Welton stuck his own portrait up there too.