2010 AIA Birmingham Awards →

We took home multiple awards from the 2010 AIA Birmingham awards ceremony. Awards included; a merit award for our work on parking deck no. 3 in Birmingham, an honor award for Alagasco Center for Energy Technology, a residential merit award for Park Place and a merit award for the offices of Proassurance.

BIRMINGHAM PARKING DECK NO. 3

• Merit Award — Commercial

The Birmingham Parking Authority Downtown Parking Deck No. 3 is a $13 million, 700-space expansion of an existing deck, providing a total of 1,445 parking spaces. This deck, which spans an entire city block, is located along a primary one-way traffic artery and gateway to downtown Birmingham and was designed to replicate the aesthetic of an office building. No parked cars are visible from the street and the colonnade of windows at the base of the building create a visual sense of retail stores which enhances this pedestrian streetscape in the heart of the financial district.

ALAGASCO CENTER FOR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

• Honor Award — Renovation/Adaptive Reuse

Contemporary finishes and systems were incorporated into the interior design of the Alagasco Demonstration Center for Energy Technology to reflect the high-tech, innovative nature of the activities contained within. Storage modules for tables and chairs located below glass panels create a spatial separation between the central lobby and the large and small meeting rooms on each side, while large glass doors into the meeting spaces and continuous glass panels above provide views of the heavy timber trusses spanning from space to space, respecting the historical aspects of the original structure.

Park Place

• Merit Award — Residential

The Park Place Apartment Complex is Birmingham’s first development funded under the federal Hope VI program – a program designed to replace the nation’s worst public housing developments with more inviting and livable neighborhoods that draw diverse groups of people and incomes. The design solution reflects the city’s rich heritage of historic buildings and turn-of-the-century apartments. Eight unique building plans are configured in combinations of townhomes and stacked flats and the design provides a doorway and streetscape scale identity for residents to personalize their respective porch, stoop or street entry. This project was a catalyst of transformation for housing developments throughout the city, revitalizing declining neighborhoods and reinstating the sense of community in these areas.

Proassurance

• Merit Award — Commercial

Looking to create a new image for its corporate headquarters, ProAssurance, Inc. enlisted Williams Blackstock to revitalize the lobby, both inside and out, of the six-story office building it calls home. The new exterior design features a dynamic bridge entry leading to the limestone portal building entrance which opens directly to the reception desk serving as the centralized check-in location for visitors. Designed to create a sense of warmth, the lobby interior showcases cherry wood paneling and travertine marble which also helps to establish a feeling of permanence, security and quality – all characteristics that ProAssurance conveys as a corporation to its clients.

2009 Birmingham IIDA Awards

Kenny & Co.

• Best of Retail

Kenny & Company, an exclusive, high-end plumbing fixture, tile and lighting boutique, enlisted Williams Blackstock to renovate and expand its showroom, a 1,610-square-foot industrial space formerly called The Loft, located in the Design District of Birmingham, Alabama. To invite customers in to explore the showroom, a large storefront window was cut into the exterior wall creating expansive views of the fixture vignettes, brightly-colored tile and custom lighting on display. Custom millwork was used throughout the space to present the array of upscale plumbing fixtures and tile collections – including free-standing panels that show mock-up design concepts for the bathroom and kitchen. Smaller tile boards are artfully displayed on long sections of bent plate angles from floor to ceiling.

2008 AIA Birmingham Awards

WBA was honored to take home an award for adaptive reuse for our work on Innovation Depot at the Birmingham AIA awards.

Innovation Depot

• Merit Award — Adaptive Reuse

The renovation of Innovation Depot was a challenging project aimed at bringing new life to an abandoned Sears department store. The design concept opened up the existing windowless building by replacing the graffiti-covered masonry walls with a sleek, glass façade – pulling ample natural light throughout the entire space. The large floor plate, more than one football field in length, serves as a “main street” corridor leading to office and shared administration space and is punctuated with a monumental stair and steel-framed elevator shaft in a central, two-story atrium. Existing concrete ceilings, columns and building systems were left exposed to symbolically mirror the innovation and creation process that occurs within the incubating businesses in the building.

2008 AIA Gulf States Awards

“Williams Blackstock Architects was awarded a regional honor for its architectural work on the Innovation Depot in downtown Birmingham.
The Gulf States chapter of the American Institute of Architects gave the Birmingham-based architect an Honor Citation for its work in renovating the former Sears building into a state-of-the-art business incubator.”

— Birmingham Business Journal

Inovation Depot

• Honor Award

The renovation of Innovation Depot was a challenging project aimed at bringing new life to an abandoned Sears department store. The design concept opened up the existing windowless building by replacing the graffiti-covered masonry walls with a sleek, glass façade – pulling ample natural light throughout the entire space. The large floor plate, more than one football field in length, serves as a “main street” corridor leading to office and shared administration space and is punctuated with a monumental stair and steel-framed elevator shaft in a central, two-story atrium. Existing concrete ceilings, columns and building systems were left exposed to symbolically mirror the innovation and creation process that occurs within the incubating businesses in the building.

2007 AIA Birmingham Awards

The Birmingham News

• Merit Award

This 110,000-square-foot, $20 million facility serves as the corporate headquarters for The Birmingham News. The four-story structure is designed to promote departmental interaction with its large, open atrium allowing visibility between departments on all floors both vertically and horizontally. The atrium’s secondary purpose is to introduce generous daylight into the center of the building which reaches all open office work areas. The exterior details of the building draw inspiration from the early 1920s architecture of downtown Birmingham, with its rich tradition of brick warehouse and office buildings. To capture that character, it was designed to look like two industrial warehouse structures connected by the contemporary glass and steel atrium, thus creating a modern space for a state-of-the-art office environment.

UAB CAMPUS RECREATION CENTER

• Honor Award

The UAB Campus Recreation Center, a 152,000-square-foot, $22 million facility, serves as a vibrant activity hub for the campus, promotes health and fitness for the entire campus community, and acts as a cornerstone of the future campus green. The jogging track is the defining architectural feature of the building. Passing through every major interior space, it also penetrates the north and west facades, affording joggers views of the surrounding campus context and beyond to the mountains bracketing the city to the south. Also, the complex features a large expanse of exterior glass that provides a view of all activities taking place inside the center. This visual connection to the exterior reinforces the design focus of the youthful, active and vibrant functioning of the building.

NAIOP Awards

The Birmingham News

• Overall Design, Architecture

The interior design of the Birmingham News Corporate Headquarters reflects a modern industrial character that is compatible with the building’s exterior architecture. Of paramount importance was updating the image of the office while creating a highly collaborative and effortlessly flexible work space. Williams Blackstock’s design solution abandoned the tradition cubical design and instead centered on varied partition height enclosures and open workspace configurations throughout the 4-story building. A raised flooring system was incorporated to allow for the under floor distribution of air, power and data. This, coupled with easily adjustable furniture systems, created a completely flexible, modern and cost-effective office environment that fosters productivity, collaboration and efficiency.

2007 AIA Alabama Awards

Innovation Depot

• Honor Award

The renovation of Innovation Depot was a challenging project aimed at bringing new life to an abandoned Sears department store. The design concept opened up the existing windowless building by replacing the graffiti-covered masonry walls with a sleek, glass façade – pulling ample natural light throughout the entire space. The large floor plate, more than one football field in length, serves as a “main street” corridor leading to office and shared administration space and is punctuated with a monumental stair and steel-framed elevator shaft in a central, two-story atrium. Existing concrete ceilings, columns and building systems were left exposed to symbolically mirror the innovation and creation process that occurs within the incubating businesses in the building.

2006 AIA Alabama Awards

UAB CAMPUS RECREATION CENTER

• Merit Award

The UAB Campus Recreation Center, a 152,000-square-foot, $22 million facility, serves as a vibrant activity hub for the campus, promotes health and fitness for the entire campus community, and acts as a cornerstone of the future campus green. The jogging track is the defining architectural feature of the building. Passing through every major interior space, it also penetrates the north and west facades, affording joggers views of the surrounding campus context and beyond to the mountains bracketing the city to the south. Also, the complex features a large expanse of exterior glass that provides a view of all activities taking place inside the center. This visual connection to the exterior reinforces the design focus of the youthful, active and vibrant functioning of the building.

2005 AIA Birmingham Awards

Williams Blackstock Architects

• Honor Award

The design for our architectural offices was based on respecting the integrity of the existing historical warehouse structure while developing a design that enhanced the firm’s creative process, efficiency and teamwork. Constructed in 1921 and added onto in 1940, the existing warehouse structure is not architecturally elaborate, but is a good example of warehouse development in this area occurring in the 1920s with load bearing brick walls, board-formed concrete floors and steel frame windows. The interior space was designed to preserve the panoramic view of the downtown Birmingham skyline and the historic railroad district while creating a modular space that facilitates collaboration and creativity among our project teams.

2005 AIA Alabama Awards

Auburn Library

• Merit Award

This 28,000 SF, $3.2 million public library was designed for a rapidly growing community that serves as the home of Auburn University. The building has an inviting entrance plaza that reaches out to the public from the major vehicular approach to the building. The façade is punctuated with a rotunda-style entrance element that extends through the interior of the building in the form of a tall, clerestory surrounded atrium lobby. The steel framed structure is wrapped in an attractive multi-colored brick and cast stone, which at night is accented with dramatic lighting to showcase the building as well as the extensive book collection, which is clearly visible to the public from the exterior. In 2005, Williams Blackstock received the Alabama Council of AIA Merit Award for the Auburn Library design.