Two teams of University of Alabama mechanical engineering students spent their senior year designing prototypes for tools that NASA anticipates it will need for planned missions in the 2020s and beyond. The UA teams are participating with 22 schools nationwide in NASA’s Microgravity Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Team (Micro-g NExT) competition. These tool prototypes will be used to help collect samples from asteroids and move them closer to the moon’s orbit to be studied. The technology concepts developed by the university teams could someday be used to mine resources on asteroids as well as Mars, according to NASA.
Author: Gina Clifford
Cahaba Brewing’s New Tasting Room
An old cotton gin in Birmingham’s Avondale district is now the site of Cahaba Brewing Company’s new production facility and tasting room, which opened in January. Project architect Williams Blackstock Architects of Birmingham kept the brickwork intact, along with hand-made doors, an industrial elevator and other original details. New features harmonize with the old, including furniture made of reclaimed lumber from an old distillery in Kentucky. Cahaba is renting nearly half of a 51,000-square-foot building that is part of the Continental Gin Industrial Park.
Rotary Trail Contributes to the Revitalization of the Downtown Area of Birmingham
Efforts to revitalize downtown Birmingham have sparked a boom in residential and commercial construction and renovations. The latest transformation is an abandoned rail bed that created an eyesore in the city center. The once blighted area is now Rotary Trail that runs along First Avenue South between 20th Street (the Birmingham Green) and 24th Street. Downtown Rotary of Birmingham took on the project and raised $3.5 million to complete the Trail – a half -mile linear park designed by Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood.
The Trail’s focal point is the Magic City sign, which pays homage to an iconic sign that once stood at Birmingham’s Terminal Station, notes Cheryl Morgan, co-chair of the project for the Rotary Club. The station and the sign were demolished in 1969, but nostalgia for the sign remained strong. At 60 feet, it serves as a gateway element in this urban context.
Morgan calls the sign “a great gesture to Birmingham history and a new icon in our downtown.” The sign was a gift from BL Harbert International. O’Neal Steel donated the materials and Fravert Services created the letters. The structure was fabricated by Daniel Iron, which can trace its origins to a company that built the original sign.
Krebs Engineering Wins Award
Birmingham-based Krebs Engineering was recently recognized for helping the city of Albertville develop a cost-effective, long-term solution to control solids hauling and disposal costs by using renewable biogas produced at its wastewater treatment facility. Biogas is called “the ultimate win-win energy source,” allowing farmers to produce their own electricity and reduce water contamination, odor pollution and global warming emissions caused by animal waste. Krebs Engineering received the American Council of Engineering Companies 2016 Grand Design Award for the design of its “Biosolids Improvement for Energy Recovery” project in Albertville. This is the only facility in Alabama to use renewable biogas to convert costly waste into a useful Class A biosolids product.
Good People Brewery
Alabama’s craft beer scene is booming and Good People Brewing Company near Railroad Park and Regions Field in Birmingham was recognized by Southern Living magazine as one of the best breweries in the state. The microbrewery’s taproom was recently renovated by Justin Brown and Matthew Finley of the Birmingham architecture firm BILT in Alabama and was designed to reflect both the industrial character of its surroundings and its natural setting. Repurposed and recycled materials were used throughout, including a new bar built of steel dunnage from the Mercedes Benz plant in Vance. BILT also manufactured the steel windows, doors and other distinctive detailing.
Cook Museum of Natural Science
Ground has broken on the site of a 57,000-square-foot natural science museum, designed by Huntsville-based Fuqua & Partners Architects. The museum set to open next year in downtown Decatur, will include permanent exhibits, classrooms, a theater, gift shop, café and an outdoor patio. The $17 million Cook Museum of Natural Science at 133 Fourth Ave. N.W. will replace a former auto parts building that was demolished along with other property on a 2.3 acre tract of land near the Princess Theatre and Decatur Public Library. Cook’s Pest Control has committed $7 million toward the museum and is raising an additional $10 million. The museum will eventually include space for traveling exhibits, a butterfly house and an outdoor natural park.
National Alliance of Preservation Commissions Forum-July27-31 in Mobile!
NAPC FORUM is the only national conference focused on issues facing local historic preservation commissions. Whether it’s mitigating the impact of sea level rise, protecting resources of the recent past or recognizing the contributions of diverse cultures to our shared heritage, historic preservation commissions play a key role in saving historic places. For more information go to FORUM 2016.
DesignAlabama Executive Director Talks about ConnectLivity as Part of the Alabama Arts Radio Series
In this program DesignAlabama Executive Director Gina Clifford talks to Cathy Gerachis DesignAlabama board member, Cheryl Morgan retired professor of architecture at Auburn University, and Jay Lamar Director of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission, about ConnectLivity.
ConnectLivity is a series of six regional design charrettes to take place across Alabama in 2016 in association with Southern Makers’ events. Southern Makers is a curated group of artisans working in various fields such as fiber arts, food, wood crafts, fashion and other focus areas.
This special radio series will air every Tuesday at 9:00 to 9:30 P.M., on the Troy University Public Radio Network at:
- 89.9 (Montgomery and Troy)
- WRWA 88.7 (Dothan)
- WTJB 91.7 (Columbus and Phenix City)
This radio series may not be broadcast in your area, but it can be accessed via the Internet at: http://www.arts.alabama.gov/actc/radioserieslist.aspx
If you have been listening to, and enjoying this radio series, please send your comments to: barbara.reed@arts.alabama.gov
Artist Fellowship Grant Deadline Approaching for Alabama State Council on the Arts
The Alabama State Council on the Arts awards Artist Fellowships of $5,000 for artists working in crafts, dance, design, media/photography, music, literature, theatre and the visual arts each year. This year’s Grant Deadline to Apply is March 1st. For more information you can click here: http://arts.alabama.gov/grants/grant_individual.aspx
North Perry Street Sites Development Opportunity Study
The City of Montgomery recently hired the firm of Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood to assist as the city begins to explore the potential for redevelopment over the next years on – and around – North Perry Street in downtown Montgomery. The city owns a number of parcels around 401 North Perry Street (collectively the “North Perry Street Sites”) in the warehouse district of north downtown. While the overall pace of downtown revitalization has accelerated over the last 10 years the area North of Madison and Jefferson Streets has not gotten the same level of change and private investment that others have seen. The partnership resulted in the creation of the North Perry Street Sites Development Opportunity Study. The city hopes the creation of this plan will help to jumpstart change and revitilization in this part of their downtown.