Federal Reserve Building
Birmingham, Ala.             
Award of Merit

Owner: Capstone Real Estate Investments LLC
Lead Design Firm: Williams Blackstock Architects
General Contractor: Hoar Construction Co.
Civil Engineer: Schoel Engineering Co.
Structural Engineer: LYBD Inc.
MEP Engineer: RJ Mechanical Inc.
Windows Contractor: Nelson Glass Co.
Surface Restoration: Architectural Surface Restoration LLC

In renovating Birmingham’s 1920s-era former Federal Reserve building—and a 1950s-era annex—into commercial office space, the owner tasked the project team with incorporating existing items into the project in order to qualify for historic tax credits from the state of Alabama. Hoar Construction worked with the National Parks Service to develop options for preserving historic features while also modernizing and bringing the structures up to current building standards. Crews salvaged and reinstalled black marble around the elevator lobbies. Builders also sand-blasted the building’s original, massive steel vaults, restoring them to their original finish and then repurposing them to house restrooms and conference rooms. In the end, the project satisfied all state and federal historic preservation requirements.

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