In 2004, the City of Birmingham retained Urban Design Associates one of the leading urban design firms in the country, to lead a process to update the City Center Master Plan. A Master Plan is a document that lays the foundation for planning and economic development initiatives and incentives by the public sector to encourage private sector development and urban vitality and is a formally adopted ordinance of the City Council. Put another way, the City Center Master Plan provides a vision for what Birmingham’s City Center can become five, ten, even twenty years down the road.
THE PLANNING PROCESS
Mayor Bernard Kincaid was adamant that the citizens of Birmingham have an opportunity to provide input for an updated vision of the City Center. To that end, the UDA team met with small focus groups representing various segments of the community. Each group was asked the same question: “What do you perceive to be the City Center's strengths, problems, and opportunities?”
In a Town Hall meeting attended by several hundred people, UDA asked this same question and at the conclusion of the program, passed out colored adhesive dots, as they did at focus groups, encouraging participants to indicate on a map where they perceived these strengths, weaknesses and opportunities to be. The consultants took this information and all the maps, studies, and data they had gathered back to their offices for further analysis.
Armed with this information, UDA principal Don Carter and his team of planners, traffic engineers and landscape architects came to Birmingham and began another round of meetings with the focus groups. In those meetings, Carter presented UDA's proposals and solicited feedback. Meanwhile, designers incorporated ideas and suggestions into a presentation that was later shown at a Town Hall meeting at the Carver Theatre at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
THE PROPOSALS
Based on the information obtained from the stakeholder focus groups and public meetings, UDA overlaid maps of the City Center with those areas the community perceived as strengths and weaknesses and as well as possible opportunities. Interestingly, strengths tended to aggregate in specific areas of the City Center (success breeds success) and opportunities tended to coincide with the problem areas.
The design model UDA employed allowed proposals that complement those portions of the City Center already under development, in accordance with accepted plans. These "initiative areas" include the UAB campus, the Loft District, the HOPE VI urban neighborhood, the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center, and the downtown core. This allows a concentration of resources for development that should then spur in-fill projects, in effect “connecting the dots” to create a whole, vibrant City Center.
The Civil Rights district, for example, is envisioned as supporting residential and mid-rise, multi-use developments concentrated around Kelly Ingram Park, the Birmingham Civil Rights District and the 16th Street Baptist Church, in what is a historically residential area.
A restored Lyric Theater and possibly a new movie theater would complement the Alabama Theatre, the IMAX, and the Carver Theater as part of a Theater District. The existing Fourth Avenue District would become part of the Theater District, while allowing that unique area to retain its cultural and historic identity.
On the northeast side of the City Center, Park Place, a mixed-income HOPE VI development would be arranged around what could be a redeveloped Marconi Park.
RAIL ROAD RESERVATION: A MAJOR PARK
An important piece in the Master Plan is the development of a 
Railroad Reservation Park running from 14th Street to Sloss Furnaces. The City-owned, 14-acre parcel between 14th Street and 18th Street would be a major component of the linear park, allowing it to become the focus of a district that includes the blocks west of 19th Street on both the north and south sides of the adjoining park.
The concept is to make the Railroad Corridor a "seam" rather than a barrier between downtown and the Southside. Residential buildings, UAB, and UAB-related facilities, and restaurants and other services would predominate south of the Railroad Reservation Park, and a Theater District and mix of technology, business, and other businesses would characterize the north side of the Railroad Reservation.
TRAFFIC PROPOSALS
Streets are important elements in the Master Plan. The elevated portion of I-59/20, between the Elton Stephens Expressway and I-65 junctions that separates the BJCC from the rest of the City Center, was identified as a weakness by many community stakeholders. However, that stretch of roadway will need to be reconstructed in a few years due to its age, which provides an opportunity. UDA has suggested channeling the highway beneath the interchanges and surface, with service roads on either side. This arrangement would dampen traffic noise and allow a series of wide streets connecting, the BJCC with downtown cultural district. In fact, the portion of the highway between 19th Street and Richard Arrington Blvd could be covered to allow the construction of a plaza.
UDA’s traffic engineer also recommended reducing the number of one-way streets in order to make the City Center easier for visitors to navigate, more pedestrian-friendly and shops and restaurants more accessible. In addition, certain streets would be heavily landscaped and designed to connect the City Center's green spaces. One design recommendation, for example, suggested enhancing 6th Avenue North into a corridor that would connect Kelly-Ingram, Linn and Marconi parks.
For an update on the initiative areas, click here.
CAN IT WORK?
Members of the UDA team included research consults that were retained to discover whether or not the numbers support the proposals. Economic Research Associates analyzed market trends, noting that downtown has maintained a healthy share of the regional office market. They also discovered the market could support 3-5 additional office buildings about the size of One Federal Place in the next 5-10 years. There will be a limited amount of growth in retail space and potential for an additional upscale hotel, as well as considerable research and development space related to UAB.
Laurie Volk of Zimmerman/Volk Associates said that trends in demographics and lifestyles indicate a strong market for downtown living. Young professionals and middle-aged "empty-nesters" will form most of this market, which could support an increase of 1,700 apartments and condominiums per year. There may also be demand for even more single family houses in the City Center and surrounding neighborhoods. The City Center has the potential to become a significant concentration of urban living during the next decade.
For a complete copy of the City Center Master Plan, as well as the accompanying Commercial Market, Residential Market and Transportation analysis, click here.
Note: The Master Plan file is large and make take some time to download depending on your connection speed.
- Maps and renderings by Urban Design Associates, City Center Master Plan Update, 2004
- Photographs by Michael Calvert