New Options in Urban Living
As loft living continues to expand building-by-building through Birmingham’s historic urban core, a parallel movement has gained momentum. For this survey we have named it “New Options in Urban Living.” Both downtown and across the wider city center, new projects ranging in scope from multi-block to single lots are underway or proposed.
In contrast to the sort of townhouse rows, usually mediocre Georgian-style, that were dropped here and there in the past, the current generation of projects shows much greater variety in building type and architecture. Birmingham architects are being given the opportunity by developers to design for specific context, and they are making the most of it.
Our survey includes:
- Park Place, the multi-year Hope VI project to replace six square blocks of barracks-style public housing in the heart of downtown with a new urban neighborhood of mixed-income residential apartments and townhouses
- The Railroad Reservation Lofts, a new nine-story residential building being designed to front the planned new park between downtown and the UAB medical center
- A new studio for Cohen Carnaggio Reynolds, with an upstairs residence for architects Tammy Cohen and Richard, built using concrete tilt-wall construction to fit its industrial context near Sloss Furnaces
- A new single-family townhouse for a former parking lot in the downtown Loft District
- Finally, a portfolio of four new residential projects designed by Dungan & Nequette Architects, two of them proposed and two underway.
These projects address a wide range of issues, but they all offer evidence of a sophisticated response to specific locations and residential markets. They are all truly urbane. Read architect Chris Giattina’s description of how the Railroad Reservation Lofts are being designed to engage future residents in their new neighborhood and find how savvy these new projects will be in nurturing urban life. These are lessons applicable in just about any city or town across Alabama.
