Red Mountain Church at Avon Theater

The Avon Theater was renovated in 2007 for Red Mountain Church both for the Church as a place for worship as well as an event space for the community. The original theater was built in 1928 and after a damaging water leak in 1983 ruined the interior finishes, it was converted to a sound stage for the Vazda film production company.

The design provided new restrooms, new code-required egress from the second floor, a new lobby space, and it opened the theater up to a large assembly space. Original wall murals were discovered in the theater during demolition and were preserved. Interior and exterior design elements expanded from the existing palette and were used in more creative ways.

When the project was completed in 2007, an old parking area remained between the front entrance and the street, with a sloping asphalt surface that was both unwelcoming and unusable. Our solution provides new outdoor space that both hosts events and provides breathing space for the surrounding neighborhood.

The new Courtyard provides a terrace of both scored concrete and crushed limestone. Steps from the sidewalk are angled to align with the odd geometry of the site and begin to re-orient views back to the theater entrance. Low wood screen walls were installed above the concrete site walls in order to give a measure of separation between the courtyard space and the public sidewalk. Two benches are built into these screen walls for informal seating.

The Avon Theater is in the middle of the Lakeview Entertainment District, home to many restaurants & bars and is located between the downtown district of Birmingham, the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and several urban residential neighborhoods. Across the street from the Courtyard is the 29Seven project, a mixed use building with apartments and restaurants. With the completion of the Avon Courtyard, an informal public space is added to the growing and thriving District. The Courtyard also completes the streetscape on its particular block, removing the parking area and bringing life to a space that was too long idle.

In 2016, this project received a Merit Award from the Birmingham Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.