Adaptive Reuse Blossoms In Birmingham With Rotary Trail

By ACRE Research

Reminders of Birmingham’s industrial past dot the city’s landscape. Vulcan, the largest cast iron statue in the world, sits atop Red Mountain. Sloss Furnaces ceased its pig iron operation in 1970, but it is now a historic landmark and entertainment venue that hosts an annual music festival, Sloss Fest.

Adaptive reuse has contributed greatly to Birmingham’s revitalization as economically obsolete buildings are transformed to meet the demands of the modern-day real estate market. Adaptive reuse, however, is not just about renovating buildings. One of the more innovative examples is Birmingham’s Rotary Trail, which created an urban greenscape in the most unlikely of places, an abandoned rail tunnel along First Avenue South.

The “railroad cut” was a reminder of Birmingham’s industrial past when both people and goods moved via train. It was quite obvious that refurbishing the four-block-long cut was an expensive undertaking. Birmingham’s Rotary Club was looking for a centennial project in 2013, and its timing turned out to be perfect. The club helped raise $3.5 million for the project, and a once-desolate stretch of rail bed was transformed into an inviting, communal green space. And the railroad cut just happened to be on the eastern side of Railroad Park, so the Birmingham Rotary Trail was a natural extension of the green revolution happening downtown.

Please visit Alabama News Center for the Full Article

Tags: exp15

Category: ALL POSTS, Partner News Stories