Auburn in Birmingham redevelopment wins multiple design awards

A once-vacant six-story building in downtown Birmingham is now an award-winning satellite campus for Auburn University! Located at 2013-2015 4th Avenue North, the Auburn in Birmingham facility opened its doors in May 2024 and has since garnered several design awards, including the highest annual honor at the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Alabama Chapter’s 2025 IDIE Awards.

About the Auburn in Birmingham urban campus

In 2018, Auburn University decided to expand select academic programs to Birmingham, the nearest major city. To do so, the university acquired the Hood-McPherson Building—a long-vacant historic furniture showroom built in 1914—and commissioned Birmingham architecture firm Williams Blackstock Architects (WBA) to transform the building into a state-of-the-art satellite campus.

After six years of design and renovation, Auburn University officially unveiled the Auburn in Birmingham facility on May 13, 2024. Today, the six-story, 44,000-square-foot building is home to:

• Classrooms for Auburn’s College of Architecture, Design, and Construction (CADC) and Raymond J. Harbert College of Business.
• A “home base” for Auburn’s Birmingham alumni network.

In addition, the project has helped revitalize a previously dormant section of Birmingham’s central business district.

Auburn University transformed a historic furniture showroom into an award-winning urban campus

So far, the Auburn in Birmingham project has won a total of five prestigious awards from the Alabama design community.

• The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) named Auburn in Birmingham “Best in Show” at the Alabama Chapter’s 2025 IDIE Awards, the organization’s highest annual honor across all categories.
• In addition to Best in Show, the IIDA awarded Auburn in Birmingham the “Best Higher Education Project” award, praising WBA’s decision to leave certain elements visible to pay homage to the building’s heritage.
• The Alabama chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded Auburn in Birmingham an “Honored Award” for overall design excellence as well as a “Divine Detail Award” for retention of the building’s industrial character and restoration of elements like the terra-cotta façade and exposed brick walls.
• The AIA Birmingham chapter recognized Auburn in Birmingham with an Honor Award, commenting on the “thoughtful interventions and exceptional space planning” that maximize daylight from both sides of the structure.

“Several members of Williams Blackstock Architects, including me, graduated from programs that are now based at Auburn in Birmingham. This project presented a rare opportunity to create learning spaces for people who will follow in our footsteps.” 

Matt Foley, AIA, the firm principal who led the adaptive-reuse process

In addition to Foley, the WBA team included project manager Suchithra Prabhu, project architect Celia Gannaway, AIA, and interior designer Hannah Eifert. Other entities involved in the project included:

• General contractor Stone Building Company
• Structural engineer Tucker-Jones Engineers Associated
• Civil engineer Dynamic Civil Solution
• MEP engineer ENFRA (formerly Bernhard)
• Electrical engineer Eldeco
• Metal fabricator Bradford Custom Metal (formerly Bradford & Hines)
• Environmental graphic designer Alabama Graphics

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