This morning the owners of the Birmingham News building cleared their last hurdle, allowing for the demolition of the 1917 building to move forward. Birmingham, Alabama’s Design Review Committee voted 5-2-1 to approve changes to the landscaping plan, treatments to the daily newspaper’s production facility facade and reviewed plans to attempt to salvage terra cotta elements of the building prior to demolition.

Architects from Williams Blackstock presented plans to erect a 10 foot screening wall built of brick along the north side of what will become a parking lot for Birmingham News employees. Foster hollies and Boston ivy will be planted along the screen to help serve as a buffer between the new surface lot and the production facility. Plans also call for bronze paint to be used on certain elements of the production facility. The old home for the city’s daily newspaper will be taken down, with the basement level being filled in and the foundation walls being taken down an additional 3 feet to accommodate the installation of the surface lot. Based on statements made during their presentation to the committee in early March, the demolition process should take approximately eleven months.