Tag Archives: Railroad Park

Random shots: Classical music fills Railroad Park

Posted on June 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Alabama Symphony concert at Railroad Park 2011

Tonight’s your last chance to enjoy the Alabama Symphony Orchestra perform in Railroad Park downtown. As mentioned previously over on Timetable, this is a new version of the outdoor summer concert series that was held at Caldwell Park in Birmingham’s Highland Park neighborhood.

The photo above is from Friday night’s performance; Sunday’s will begin at 6 p.m. and is being called more family-friendly than the previous two. Pieces presented will include the theme to the Harry Potter film series, selections from Pirates of the Caribbean and a big bands salute all sponsored by Protective Life.

Attendees who want to share their photos from this weekend with others and are members of Flickr may want to add them to the unofficial group for Railroad Park that’s maintained on the popular site. The park has placed a gallery of those images on its website.

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Check out the floating Christmas tree!

Posted on December 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Railroad Park's first Christmas tree. acnatta/FlickrUPDATE: According to the park’s Twitter account, the tree’s already floating before 5 p.m. (complete with a photo to prove it).

Well, it’s not floating yet, but it will be before the end of the night…

Birmingham’s Railroad Park ushers in its first holiday season this afternoon starting at 5 p.m.

Sometime between 5 and 6 p.m. this tree will be “launched” into the park’s man-made lake.

The event was originally scheduled for Saturday, though weather forecasts calling for a 90% chance of rain and a low of 32° were reasons enough for Mayor Bell to request a time change.

Those attending can bring g a new, unwrapped toy to support the Mayor’s Office Division of Youth Services Toy Drive and enjoy hot chocolate and music from Neo Jazz Collective.

Incidentally, if you attend tonight’s event, you may get a chance to introduce yourself to the park’s new executive director, Camille Spratling. The former executive assistant to the president of Birmingham Southern College started last week. Katherine Billmeier will continue on as a consultant to the park until the end of the year.

Photo: Railroad Park’s first Christmas tree. acnatta/Flickr

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On the agenda: Support for the beltline and parks

Posted on November 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

Official flag of the City of BirminghamThis morning’s Birmingham City Council agenda is a little smaller than normal – 15 pages to be exact. It’s the stuff covered within those pages that are interesting.

Item 35, if approved, will state that the City Council fully supports the Northern Beltline “in order to address regional transportation needs.” The item was on consent but was removed.

Item 17 will make some changes to the contract between the City of Birmingham and the Railroad Park Foundation. It will simply change the name of the agency that the City has the contract with and allow for the first of ten renewals of three years each.

Items 1 & 2 will allow for a new establishment, the Emporium Nightclub, to open in the space most recently occupied by the Continental Ballroom.

The meetings are streamed online and available for review; the agenda is available for review now.

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Dreaming about across the street from Railroad Park

Posted on February 2, 2010 | 1 comment

TRO JB 1st ave pers There seems to be a growing  number of people interested in the suggested development proposals presented at last week’s Operation New Birmingham breakfast briefing.

For those of you who did not see yesterday’s piece in The Birmingham News or the reader’s poll on AL.com, the elevations created by Erdreich Architecture, The Garrison Barrett Group, Cohen Carnaggio Reynolds, Sims Architectural Studio, TRO Jung|Brannen and Williams-Blackstock Architects were presented for a vote – but the elevations only tell part of the story.

Each proposal envisioned the types of businesses that could be included and tried to work in the results of a compact agreed to by property owners and developers months earlier (including ensuring that parking was handled inside of the block. The proposals are just that – ways to visualize what is possible before going to the next step. We invite you to check out all of the proposals submitted and share your thoughts.

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Railroad’s next phase

Posted on August 4, 2009 | Leave a comment

RRP-Amphitheater

There’s been a lot of conversations about Railroad Park recently, particularly about the status of work on what’s been called Birmingham, AL’s living room. Two weeks ago during a presentation at the Operation New Birmingham breakfast, attendees were given an update on the progress of Railroad Park, complete with renderings of the proposed 3,000-seat amphitheater and of the signage that would great users as they entered from the corners. Funds must still be raised for its construction, which means it will most likely not be completed until it is a part of phase II of the site’s development

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The State of the Railroad Park is good

Posted on February 19, 2009 | 3 comments

The current news surrounding Railroad Park is good with Birmingham City Council committees moving forward a proposal that would allowMayor Langford to pledge $5 million for construction of the 3,000 seat amphitheater. While unforseen circumstances have called for some changes from the master plan developed by Tom Leader Studio, it will still be a significant addition to Birmingham’s city center. There may be some that still think that the conversation about the park is premature.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/wZx1UUY4hss" width="400" height="329" wmode="transparent" /] 

One quick drive by the site in recent weeks though would lead you to have a different feeling about it – like progress since work began on the site December 23. It’s currently on schedule to be a Christmas/New Year’s gift to the city.

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