Auburn University Hotel & Dixon Conference Center

BPA has strong ties to Auburn—several members of the BPA family graduated from Auburn University, support its various athletic teams, and consider the Loveliest Village on the Plains to be a second home. For our team, it is a great privilege to work on a project at our old stomping grounds for our alma matter.

The Hotel at Auburn University & Dixon Conference Center is a notable landmark for anyone traveling along South College Street through the Loveliest Village on the Plains. Last year, The Hotel debuted interior upgrades for its world-class conference center. Strategic construction phasing was necessary to facilitate the extensive renovations while allowing the hotel and conference center to maintain operations.

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Check out the project page to read and see more of the 21,000 SF renovation: www.bpa.net/auburn-university-hotel-dixon-conference-center

Mentone Cultural Arts Center

BPA has been working on something close to our hearts - a cultural arts center for Mentone, Alabama. As designers, we are honored to help develop this design that will support and encourage the arts and art education in our state!

Click here or read below to hear about the vision behind this project from the Mentone Arts Cultural Center (MACC) Board. 

"Art and music are woven into the very fabric of Mentone and the Lookout Mountain region."

"The mission of the Mentone Arts and Cultural Center is to provide education about this rich history in order to promote, propagate and protect it for current and future generations. Creation of the Center has been a long-time dream of many in this mountain hamlet. Plans are beginning to materialize that will ensure the reality of this dream.   

The facility will be designed and constructed for the general public of Mentone. Mentone itself is home to approximately 450 residents, but swells in size on weekends and throughout Spring, Summer and Fall as part-time residents and tourists come to the mountain. There are over 15 boys and girls camps that bring families from all over the country during the summer months. In addition, over 250 artists - known regionally, nationally and internationally - reside in the area and significantly contribute to the cultural fabric of the community.

Due to the high rate of tourism and a significant artists' presence, there is strong support for the arts from the Mentone town council and various local organizations. The town and local businesses open up its parks and green space and the local organizations sponsor a variety of cultural events and art festivals. Hundreds of artists from the region and elsewhere participate and draw thousands of people to the community to partake in these festivities throughout the year. Due to the positive economic and social impact of the arts and festivals on the town of Mentone, it is natural that various disciplines of the arts have become woven into the fabric of the town and surrounding area." - http://www.mentoneartscenter.org

The project will be built in phases and the design includes:

• a state-of-the-art multipurpose center which will include a stage suitable for theater, dance, and other performing arts

• a wing that will house a commercial kitchen and restrooms

• a sculpture garden which will feature native plantings, seating areas, and a life-size sculpture of Sequoyah which is being crafted by bronze sculptor Carl McCleskey and his wife Betsy Scott.

• educational classrooms

• a museum which will double as a storm shelter for the community’s use

• a 450-person amphitheatre for outside performances and large gatherings

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UAB School of Optometry

Greetings loyal BPA blog audience! We express our sincerest apologies for keeping our faithful readers in the dark about our exciting projects.

One of those is the renovation to UAB’s School of Optometry building. A significant portion of the work has already been completed, with the remaining renovations scheduled to be finished by the end of the year.

We’re proud to continue our relationship with UAB in designing spaces that empower our clients to bring innovation to the communities around us. The School of Optometry continues to distinguish itself as a top-tier program by providing state-of-the-art clinical practice and partaking in groundbreaking discoveries in vision science.

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Peruse the project page to read and see more about the 18,600 SF renovation: www.bpa.net/uab-school-of-optometry. And learn more about UAB's School of Optometry at their website: https://www.uab.edu/optometry/home/.

A Sneak Peek at One of Our Oldest Projects...

We can’t say much, but we couldn’t resist the opportunity to share some cool photos from this antebellum era structure. Be sure to come back to our blog or visit our social media accounts for more updates about this mysterious and exciting project!

Mercedes-Benz US International In Review

As we begin a new year, let's take a look back at the completion of the 2017 office renovations at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama. With over 80,000 square feet already completed, we are proud to say we are currently under design and construction for several additional areas throughout the plant. Stay tuned in 2018 for more exciting updates!

Each renovation begins with a conceptual idea that is conveyed through a sketch, thanks to our very own Wallace Williams! This allows us to convey our ideas to the client before we begin the construction documentation process. So far this has been well received and leaves each area with a piece of art to motivate them for the future!

A special thanks to the talented Chris Luker with Luker Photography for these images http://www.lukerphotography.com/

For more photos and information on our work at the Mercedes-Benz plant, visit our project page www.bpa.net/mercedes-benz

St. Vincent's 119 Sisters Garden

After our addition of the Ambulatory Surgery Center at Saint Vincent's One Nineteen, we were tasked with dreaming up a sacred space for the One Nineteen campus to connect the existing wellness facility and the new Surgery Center.

We held collaborative charettes with healthcare providers and caregivers that serve the ministry, and as a product of these work sessions, came up with the idea for the Sisters Garden. Our goal was to develop a space that welcomed growth, sharing, renewing of the inner life, persistence of purpose and reminding us of the spiritual presence in all of creation. 

The St. Vincent’s One Nineteen Sisters Garden is a sequence of outdoor spaces designed as a fundamental component of the St. Vincent’s Health System’s Healing Ministry. This sacred space constitutes a meditative garden and labyrinth, ethereal canopy and intimate gathering spaces. 

The design underscores the physical and spiritual centrality of the project. Each detail element reinforces the concept of suspension between introspection and outward engagement.  Cedar screens shelter visitors, patients and caregivers alike, while maintaining a visual connection to their surroundings. A translucent canopy arcs across the space, drawing passers-by into a moment of rest and contemplation.
 

Check out our project page for more details and photos: http://www.bpa.net/st-vincents-one-nineteen-sisters-garden

Photographs by: Luker Photography

See the progress of St. Vincent's newest hospital in Chilton County

As Saint Vincent's describes in its foundation newsletter (see below), residents of Chilton county have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new hospital. St. Vincent's Chilton is set to open it's doors this coming fall and our team here at BPA has been hard at work over the past couple of years to bring the project to fruition for the Chilton community. As construction starts to wrap up, take a peek at some progress photos of Chilton over the last several months. 

BPA Project Team for St. Vincent's Chilton:
Russ Realmuto, Kim Edwards, & Maria Glaser
Photo Credit: Kim Edwards

Project Update: University of Alabama Peter Bryce Main Building

Recent photo of approach to Bryce Main Building.

For over 150 years, the historic Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa, AL was used by the state’s Department of Mental Health. Over time, the monumental facility was being under-utilized and was in need of extensive repair. By 2014, the patients at the historic Bryce Hospital were moved into a new facility nearby. Subsequently, The University of Alabama acquired the historic Bryce Hospital with plans to adaptively reuse the facility as a welcome center for the university and classroom space for the theater and dance department.

View from one of the courtyards.

1970s photo of Main Building approach. Photo from National Park Service.

Cupola on Main Building.

The original Bryce Hospital comprised of a four-story main building and six wings. We were selected as the architect to help the University of Alabama in their pursuit to preserve as much as the original building as possible. During the selective demolition and abatement process, it was determined that much of the historic structure could not be preserved; and, as a result, the two outermost wings were demolished. The remainder of building’s masonry structure will be preserved with a variety of techniques. In some areas, the interior load-bearing walls will be removed and replaced with a steel structure. The exterior masonry walls will be preserved on remaining portions of the historic structure.

The photos below reflect some of the progress made during the selective demolition and abatement process.

Before selective demolition and abatement started in one of the west wings

After selective demolition and abatement process began in one of the west wings

AL.com has posted an article with more information about the Bryce Hospital’s former use. http://s.al.com/y1sD3nk

All photos taken by Birchfield Penuel & Associates, unless otherwise noted.

National Architecture Week 2016

In honor of it being National Architecture Week, over the past 5 days we have featured a variety of posts on our social media accounts that represent not only our work and our firm but also the architecture profession as a whole. As the American Institute of Architects put it, 

National Architecture Week is a public awareness campaign dedicated to increasing attention to the role architects play as a force for positive change in our communities and to elevate the public’s appreciation of design.

So this week, we wanted to illuminate architecture and what  it means for us - from engagement of our communities to the designers and ideas that are shaping the built environment locally and globally. 

Here is a re-cap of our week:

Monday

One of our Associate Principals inspecting the cornice work on one of our exterior renovation projects - for the #ilookup campaign.  The I Look Up campaign by The American Institute of Architects (AIA) encourages everyone to "Look Up” and see what we can create together. 

Tuesday

Wednesday

For #transformationtuesday, we featured before and after photos of a community outreach project we did with @kuumbaensley for their new studio space in downtown Ensley! Our office spent a weekend with Kuumba volunteers to paint, scrub, lay ceiling tile, install bathroom fixtures, and put down carpet. Check out their website for more images of their talented design students hard at work in the newly-improved space! 

https://kuumbaensley.wordpress.com/

Our  #WCW was the late Zaha Hadid. She was an award-winning architect, fashion designer, and artist. Her work on the Contemporary Arts Center  [pictured here] earned Hadid the distinction of being the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize. 📷: www.zaha-hadid.com

thursday

friday

‪We used #‎TBT‬ to bring attention to one of our completed projects. Birchfield Penuel & Associates completed exterior and interior renovation work to Alabama Pediatric Dentistry in 2014. The existing brick-clad two-story structure now houses the dental clinic on the ground floor and tenant space above. In the waiting area, we capitalized on an opportunity to open the space to the second level, with applied textural panel and airy, colorful pendant fixtures.

Lastly, today we went down to the Alabama Center for Architecture here in Birmingham where the dreamArchitecture jury is taking place today. DreamArchitecture is an outreach program the local AIA hosts for local children, grades K-5, to introduce them to architecture and encourage creativity. This year's theme--Draw your dream Skyscraper! We have some amazing submissions. To learn more visit aiabham.org.