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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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