Birmingham Development News

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by Bogue

Curious where that is in reference to the old B'ham train station that I've heard talked about?

It's really not close to the original site. If you head north on 20th street and hang a right on 5th Avenue north - you will actually go through the tunnel you see in the photograph that was under the original strucuture. I'll try to take a photo next time I'm in that part of town.

[TimCity2000]

Originally Posted by phoenixboi08

Hey! New to this thread.
I'm moving to Birmingham soon for school. I just wanted some opinions on what to check out first.

Welcome! Are you familiar with Birmingham at all? If not, definitely check out some of the "touristy" stuff (Vulcan, Sloss, Civil Rights Museum, McWane, Barber, etc). Also, we've got some amazing neighborhoods in the city, as well as great dining.

Which school will you be attending?

[Randy Sandford]

Originally Posted by dfwtiger

To recreate this building on a terminal axis at the railroad reservation park would be a treat. However, I doubt we could ever find enough money to make it happen.

That idea has crossed my mind before as well.

[Bogue]

Seems like rebuilding such a facility would be more beneficial to the city of B'ham than a dome, JMO.

Perhaps give it adequate interior space to serve as a convention hall?

For Phoenix: (the others can fill in the gaps)

Restaurants/Bars:
The Garage - GO! It's one of the coolest places in town, though kind of awkward to get to. Find someone to take you the first time.
Makarios - Funky little building in the 5 Points South area w/ a bright green roof. Great hummus and nice folks.
Jacksons - SOHO area of Homewood. A little too loud, but great food.
Jim N' Nicks - If you like barbecue it's really good. Not really my thing, though.
Rojo - It's in the Highlands. Kind of a neat place but usually overcrowded. Good food, though, usually.

Neighborhoods:

The Highlands - Cool area. convenient to Southside & 5 Points South, lots of parks and architecture that isn't just a bunch of Victorian crap.
Crestwood - some neat architecture, but the edges of the area are dicey.
Southside - most of the bars are in this area and UAB's located there.
Homewood - town just the other side of the mtn. from B'ham proper. Nice area generally... just don't get west of I-65.
Mtn. Brook - mcMansions and bougie folk, but a really nice area.

Don't Go: (as told to me when I moved here)
5 Points WEST
Fairfield
Ensley
Woodlawn
...and avoid most everything north of the tracks by more than a few avenues.
...I'd also avoid 280 altogether if I didn't have to get on it. seriously ridiculous traffic. I have friends who live down it or else I'd never use it.

Attractions:
Vulcan - you can usually have the park almost all to yourself, take friends and picnic. Great place for that. Neat little museum there as well. If you're not scared of heights go up to the top of the statue and look out from the little observation deck. There are some great views up there. I believe there are also some walking trails nearby.
5 Points South - Sort of the main entertainment district in town.
Sloss Furnace - They have events there sometimes, and it's interesting to photograph, but it's an old industrial site, basically.

[Randy Sandford]

Originally Posted by Bogue

Restaurants/Bars:
The Garage - GO! It's one of the coolest places in town, though kind of awkward to get to. Find someone to take you the first time.
Makarios - Funky little building in the 5 Points South area w/ a bright green roof. Great hummus and nice folks.
Jacksons - SOHO area of Homewood. A little too loud, but great food.
Jim N' Nicks - If you like barbecue it's really good. Not really my thing, though.
Rojo - It's in the Highlands. Kind of a neat place but usually overcrowded. Good food, though, usually.

Jim N' Nick's is good, but they don't have the best BBQ in town. I prefer Johnny Ray's and Full Moon. But Jim N' Nick's does have a more extensive menu than most BBQ joints (their chicken fingers are awesome!). Personally, I hate Golden Rule BBQ...some like it, but they have the worst sause IMO.

Surin West (Thai), Silvertron Cafe, and The Fish Market are also worth checking out.

Originally Posted by Bogue

Neighborhoods:

The Highlands - Cool area. convenient to Southside & 5 Points South, lots of parks and architecture that isn't just a bunch of Victorian crap.
Crestwood - some neat architecture, but the edges of the area are dicey.
Southside - most of the bars are in this area and UAB's located there.
Homewood - town just the other side of the mtn. from B'ham proper. Nice area generally... just don't get west of I-65.
Mtn. Brook - mcMansions and bougie folk, but a really nice area.

Well, there isn't actually a neighborhood called "The Highlands." There's Highland Park through which Highland Avenue snakes around three parks (east of Red Mountain Expressway) and South Highlands (the area between UAB and Vulcan). East of Highland Park is Forest Park, and to the south is Redmont Park (half of which is in Birmingham and the other half is in Mountain Brook).

Are you sure you've really explored Mountain Brook? True, you'll find a lot of mansions in Mountain Brook, but most in the heart of Mountain Brook (the areas surrounding the 3 villages--English Village, Mountain Brook Village, and Crestline Village) were built in the first half of the 1900's. Even newer homes built in the heart of Mountain Brook usually have more character than the McMansions of the suburbs. You have to go to the fringes of Mountain Brook to find McMansions. And Mountain Brook has always been known as the enclave of Birmingham's "old money" families. Vestavia Hills, Hoover, and North Shelby County are where you'll find the majority of the "bougie" or "new money" people.

And while it's rather remote, you should check out the new urbanist town known as Mt. Laurel (in Shelby County on the other side of Double Oak Mountain south of Greystone).

[Randy Sandford]

BTW, Bogue and phoenixboi08, I posted a 3-part series about Highland Park and its annual Do Dah Day festivities back in May. Here are the links:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=151333

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=151332

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=151331

[| BRAVO |]

A new study using GPS data has ranked the top 100 most congested cities in the country. Greater Birmingham ranked 51st and is the only metro in the state to make the list. I know it has been reported ALDOT is moving forward with expanding I-65 beween I-459 and Valleydale to 8 lanes and 6 lanes to Hwy 52 in Pelham. This should alleviate the congestion - the question is - will adding lanes simply contirbute to the exodus to Shelby County.

Image credit and link to site:
Inrix National Traffic Scorecared

[phoenixboi08]

Originally Posted by | BRAVO |

Welcome Aboard! What are you interested in? Shopping? Residential Areas? Restaurants?

Everything! Everything! Mostly local stuff though...

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by phoenixboi08

Everything! Everything! Mostly local stuff though...

Okay... I'll start with the easy stuff... shopping.

The major retail centers around Greater Birmingham are:

"The Galleria"
www.riverchasegalleria.com
Riverchase Galleria is in Hoover at the intersection of US 31 and 459. It has over 200 shops and is anchored by Sears, Macy's, Penney's and Belk. There is supposed to be a makeover coming in January that will conclude with the opening of Nordstrum. A lot of people like to say the Galleria is all washed up - I'm not buying it. It is still the largest tourist attraction in the state and just needs a little freshening up.

"The Summit"
www.thesummitonline.com
Located at the intersecion of 459 and US 280. The Summit is Birmingham's "premiere" lifestyle center and has most of the high-end chain boutiques. Personally, I'd rather be shot in the head than go to The Summit - the only reason I go for is for the Apple store.


"Brookwood"
www.colonialbrookwoodvillage.com
Colonial Brookwood Village is located on Lakeshore Dr between US 31 and US 280. It's probably my favorite mall. It was renovated back in 2002-2003 and they added streetlevel storefronts. They have a Five Guys Burgers and man is it good.


"Century Plaza"
www.centuryplaza.com
It's dead... you'll hear it mentioned... it has taken a real nose dive over the last 5-10 years.


"The Pinnacle at Tutwiler Farms"
If you're ever out in the Trussville area - The Pinnacle is located at 459 and US 11. It's an open-air lifestyle center like The Summit but not nearly as high-end. They have Belk and Penney's and a bunch of other typical mall stores. They do have the only Red Robin in Greater Birmingham.

[| BRAVO |]

Some of my favorite neighborhoods/streets in Birmingham are:

A very important piece of info you should know before navigating Birmingham is the city is divided into North and South by the railroad tracks that bisect the city. If someone give the address: 20th street and 5th Avenue North - you're in the heart of downtown. If somone gives you the address: 20th Street and 5th Avenue South - You're in the heart of UAB. Confuses the heck out of some people.


20th Street - If ever there was a main street for Birmingham... this is it. Start at Linn Park and head south through the financial district and under the railroad into Southside onto the UAB campus and on to Five Points South. Five Points South Five Points South is ground zero for social activities in the city. It is located at 20th Street and 11th Avenue South. Head on up the mountain and you'll pass Vulcan and eventually end up in Homewood.

Morris Avenue - Not a lot of activity here but the cobblestone streets and converted store fronts are worth it. Get some peanuts at The Peanut Depot while you're there.

Cobb Lane - Another cobblestone street with a lot of atmosphere.

University Boulevard / Clairmont Avenue - There has been a phenonenal amount of construction on the UAB campus over the last 5 years and most of it has been concentrated on University Boulevard (8th Avenue South). University passes under US 31/280 and becomes Clairmont Avenue which head into the Forest Park Neighborhood. It's a fun walk or Drive.

Highland Avenue - Probably my favorite. Highland begins close to Five Points South and crossess over 31/280 through the Highland Park Neighborhood. It's absolutely beautiful. You'll pass Caldwell, Rhodes and Rushton Parks.

Norwood Boulevard and Bush Boulevard - Both are beautiful historic neighborhoods that represent Birmingham well. Norwood is probably in a bit more disrepair but it's worth the drive. I have not walked either.

Mountain Brook Villages: Randy is right - there is nothing McMansion about Mountain Brook. Visit all three villages:
- Mountain Brook Village
- Crestline Village
- English Village - check out Billie's - it's a good bar and good eats.

Downtown Homewood / SOHO - It's pretty lively most of the time and has some good food - try Anchorage Restaurant - it's an excellent meat and three.

[| BRAVO |]

Some of my favorite activities around town:

Birmingham Botanical Gardens - I enjoy spending a relaxing afternoon at the Gardens. It's a good place to study outside.
www.bbgardens.org

The Birmingham Zoo - They have some good exhibits and some bad. It's worth checking out.
www.birminghamzoo.com


The Alabama Theatre - They haven't update their calendar past August but there is usually something fun going on... try not to miss the "Christmas at the Alabama" movie series if you are in town.
www.alabamatheatre.com

Pepper Place - This is probably the closest Birmingham has to a design district. There are lots of designers, architects and antique stores in the area and they have an awesome farmer's market that runs through the end of September. I think you'll be surprised.
www.pepperplacemarket.com


Definately check out:

McWane Science Center

Vulcan Park

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Birmingham Museum of Art

Barber Motorsports

Alabama Adventure

[Randy Sandford]

Originally Posted by | BRAVO |

"The Galleria"
www.riverchasegalleria.com
Riverchase Galleria is in Hoover at the intersection of US 31 and 459. It has over 200 shops and is anchored by Sears, Macy's, Penney's and Belk. There is supposed to be a makeover coming in January that will conclude with the opening of Neiman Marcus. A lot of people like to say the Galleria is all washed up - I'm not buying it. It is still the largest tourist attraction in the state and just needs a little freshening up.

OOPS...guess you meant to say Nordstrom instead of Neiman-Marcus (although you did cause me to do a quick web search for an announcement about Neiman-Marcus coming to the Galleria).

Originally Posted by | BRAVO |

"The Summit"
www.thesummitonline.com
Located at the intersecion of 459 and US 280. The Summit is Birmingham's "premiere" lifestyle center and has most of the high-end chain boutiques. Personally, I'd rather be shot in the head than go to The Summit - the only reason I go for is for the Apple store.

The Cheesecake Factory is another reason to go to The Summit.

Originally Posted by | BRAVO |

"Century Plaza"
www.centuryplaza.com
It's dead... you'll hear it mentioned... it has taken a real nose dive over the last 5-10 years.

Growing up in the Huffman/Center Point area, Century Plaza and Eastwood Mall was where we usually went for mall shopping. So it's kinda sad for me to see Eastwood now demolished (replaced by a strip mall anchored by Walmart) and Century Plaza become a ghost town. I now live in Trussville, so at least I'm only five minutes away from The Pinnacle.

Originally Posted by | BRAVO |

"The Pinnacle at Tutwiler Farms"
If you're ever out in the Trussville area - The Pinnacle is located at 459 and US 11. It's an open-air lifestyle center like The Summit but not nearly as high-end. They have Belk and Penney's and a bunch of other typical mall stores. They do have the only Red Robin in Greater Birmingham.

There's a Five Guys Burgers & Fries at The Pinnacle too! And Birmingham's second Cajun Steamer (delicious!).

[Bogue]

I like the music store at The Summit (Coconuts?). Dunno' what part of town you're going to live in, but they have a theatre out there if you live near it. There are better ones in Vestavia on US 31 & at the Galleria, though.

Maybe they're old, but the houses in Mtn. Brook still look generic to me. It's like a 50 year old heiress... pleasant and attractive to look at, but kinda' fake-looking.

That could just be me hating on that type of architecture, though.

A very important piece of info you should know before navigating Birmingham is the city is divided into North and South by the railroad tracks that bisect the city. If someone give the address: 20th street and 5th Avenue North - you're in the heart of downtown. If somone gives you the address: 20th Street and 5th Avenue South - You're in the heart of UAB. Confuses the heck out of some people.

I just wanted to emphasize his point. I got myself seriously lost by not paying attention to the "S" & "N"s.

[Randy Sandford]

Originally Posted by Bogue

Maybe they're old, but the houses in Mtn. Brook still look generic to me. It's like a 50 year old heiress... pleasant and attractive to look at, but kinda' fake-looking.

That could just be me hating on that type of architecture, though.

Still sounds like you've never fully explored Mountain Brook. Do these houses look generic to you?







































.

BTW, those last 3 aerials were from screen captures of bird's eye views from Live Search Maps. I posted nearly 200 of those from the entire Birmingham metro area in an "Above Birmingham" series last year. You can view the rest of them here:

http://www.pbase.com/randy4au/aerial_tour

Here are views of Mountain Brook's 3 villages plus neighboring Downtown Homewood from that collection:

ENGLISH VILLAGE



.

MOUNTAIN BROOK VILLAGE





.

CRESTLINE VILLAGE





.

DOWNTOWN HOMEWOOD

[Bogue]

Very cool pictures, but to answer your question.. yes, they all still look fake to me (except the two white houses w/ the columns and the red brick house w/ the perfect symmetry). The first one is that generic western style that can be found in most upper-class suburbs, the 2nd is as out of place as it can be w/ that style of architecture, the 3rd is the fakest of the bunch, though... Imitation Tudor/Old English.... yeuch! It's like one of those tacky "medieval times" dinner theatres or summat'. It even has the deliberately "haphazard" exposed "stone" facade. HATE that style of architecture. Tudors are such posers. Ones like the Spanish Colonial and the Italianate are very pretty, but they're just out of place. Like I said, it's a generally pleasant area to look at, but fake. I like the old neighborhoods that have more of an architectural flow to them, not identical, just roughly similar. Even if it took the neighborhood down some gaudy Victorian path the street still feels like it has more of an organic character that way. Feels more like a neighborhood and less like a collection of houses. Of course, everyone has their opinion on architectural style, but the above is just my position on it.

That bottom picture has SOHO in it, right? Those apts. in the bottom-right-hand part of the picture were bulldozed for a condo complex weren't they? Very fun area, though. There's a Momma Goldbergs on that street on the left of that picture. Ate there one night at the insistence of a friend. Very good food.

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by Randy Sandford

OOPS...guess you meant to say Nordstrom instead of Neiman-Marcus (although you did cause me to do a quick web search for an announcement about Neiman-Marcus coming to the Galleria).

Woops! Yep, one of those hauhty tauty stores.

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by Bogue

the 3rd is the fakest of the bunch, though... Imitation Tudor/Old English.... yeuch! It's like one of those tacky "medieval times" dinner theatres or summat'. It even has the deliberately "haphazard" exposed "stone" facade. HATE that style of architecture. Tudors are such posers.

Yeah, we're all entitled to our opinion. But Birmingham's namesake is an English city... and tudor is an English style. So, it should be expected.

[dfwtiger]

Originally Posted by Bogue

Very cool pictures, but to answer your question.. yes, they all still look fake to me (except the two white houses w/ the columns and the red brick house w/ the perfect symmetry). The first one is that generic western style that can be found in most upper-class suburbs, the 2nd is as out of place as it can be w/ that style of architecture, the 3rd is the fakest of the bunch, though... Imitation Tudor/Old English.... yeuch! It's like one of those tacky "medieval times" dinner theatres or summat'. It even has the deliberately "haphazard" exposed "stone" facade. HATE that style of architecture. Tudors are such posers. Ones like the Spanish Colonial and the Italianate are very pretty, but they're just out of place. Like I said, it's a generally pleasant area to look at, but fake. I like the old neighborhoods that have more of an architectural flow to them, not identical, just roughly similar. Even if it took the neighborhood down some gaudy Victorian path the street still feels like it has more of an organic character that way. Feels more like a neighborhood and less like a collection of houses. Of course, everyone has their opinion on architectural style, but the above is just my position on it.

That bottom picture has SOHO in it, right? Those apts. in the bottom-right-hand part of the picture were bulldozed for a condo complex weren't they? Very fun area, though. There's a Momma Goldbergs on that street on the left of that picture. Ate there one night at the insistence of a friend. Very good food.

I have to disagree.

Is it style? Is it form or onrnmentation? What is the difference? A good example is someone who professes to hate modern architecture but loves classical.....many fail to understand most modernist architects used classical proportions. So is it the dressing of the building that is in question? It appears so….does one hate the form…or the ornamentation?

Outside of a few styles...such as Arts & Crafts...and the associated styles of that root style. Or Pueblo...perhaps our best known indigenous style........... It is important to remember that we have few housing styles are original to the US. Most of our styles built upon existing styles. We are not a nation of multiple vernacular residential building typologies. The more modern ranch home could be added to the list. Otherwise, almost all housing styles pre-1940 are imports from other parts of the world...or add on to styles that already existed. Although you were able to throw in a few housing typologies into your argument...I am afraid that you are off base my friend.

In the case of Birmingham, I would suggest that you look back at early settlers and developers. There you will find the reason why we have ....what we have. In your investigation...pay attention to the cultural geography...it will help you understand why these are not fake. Many of these housing styles are Eurocentric for a reason. Many of these styles were modified for the south....and used local materials.....therefore; they are not the velvet Elvis of which you think they may be.

[OCA REP]

Originally Posted by | BRAVO |

Woops! Yep, one of those hauhty tauty stores.

Throw up all you like. They have probably the best men's shoe department out there (at least in most of their stores) and the service just cannot be beat!

[| BRAVO |]

Originally Posted by OCA REP

Throw up all you like. They have probably the best men's shoe department out there (at least in most of their stores) and the service just cannot be beat!

That's nice. I'd still rather not be there on a Saturday afternoon.