Birmingham

Birmingham, the largest city in Alabama, is among a select group of communities forming a new vision of the South.      Drawing on its native reserves of coal, iron and ore, the city was reared on the steel industry. In recent years, however, the city's economy has grown to rely on banking, automotive production, education, and healthcare. And following a tumultuous period in the 1960s and 1970s, when Birmingham was ground zero for the Civil Rights Movement, the city has emerged as an affordable, diverse and pleasant place to live.

Recognized by the nonprofit organization Partners for Livable Communities as "America's Most Livable Community" among midsize cities in 2004, Birmingham appears to have maintained the longstanding traditions of Southern hospitality while drawing lessons from its past and adapting for the future.

The Birmingham metropolitan area, with a present population of about 1 million, may be forming a thoroughly modern economy, but its charm remains in its blue Alabama skies and unique Southern way of life.

"Birmingham is exceptionally beautiful, and I think that is sometimes something of a surprise for people who first visit," says Dilcy Hilley, vice president of marketing for the Greater Birmingham CVB. "It is situated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, so it is mountainous and hilly and lush.

"And I think the natural Southerness of the city is also a draw. Southerners are something of a people apart from the rest of the country. I think Southerners tend to find humor and beauty in lots of things that other folks sometimes overlook," she adds.

Another one of the city's draws, especially for cost-conscious meeting planners, is affordability.

"We have rates that are lower in almost all cases than our competing cities," Hilley says, noting that planners who look at Birmingham also tend to consider Mobile, Charlotte, New Orleans, Orlando, and Memphis for meetings and conventions.

According to Hilley, medical meetings make up a significant portion of the meetings pie in Birmingham due to the success of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Health System.

"UAB is a world-renowned medical center and the leader in kidney transplants in the nation, with all sorts of cancer research, AIDS research and other projects," she says. "There are dignitaries from all over the world who come to UAB to be treated."

Quite a Complex

Medical groups enjoy the facilities available at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC), which features the Medical Forum, a 10-story building with 364,000 square feet of classrooms, meeting space, conference areas, and commercial office suites.

"The BJCC has an auditorium that can feed in live operating procedures so that medical groups can watch open heart surgery or other surgery techniques live," Hilley says.

The downtown Birmingham complex also features a 220,000-square-foot exhibit hall, 74 meeting rooms, a 19,000-seat arena, a 3,000-seat concert hall, a 1,000-seat theater, and Alabama's largest hotel, the 771-room Sheraton Birmingham Hotel, all under one roof.

The Harbert Center, another downtown venue, offers a variety of meeting facilities, including a banquet hall that has a seating capacity of 470 and is set within a distinguished Italian marble design.

The Greater Birmingham area is also home to more than 15,000 guest rooms in roughly 130 hotels, and dozens offer meeting facilities, including several downtown properties.

Meanwhile, downtown Birmingham features a number of acclaimed cultural institutions. The Birmingham Museum of Art, the largest municipal museum in the Southeast, houses more than 21,000 works of art ranging from ancient to modern times. The McWane Center, which recently hosted the exhibit Tutankhamun: Wonderful Things from the Pharaoh's Tomb, offers four levels of hands-on science activities housed in the former Loveman's Department Store, a renovated Art Deco building with an attached IMAX dome. Another Art Deco gem, historic Carver Theater for the Performing Arts, houses the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and regular performances by the Birmingham Heritage Band as well as national jazz acts.

And according to Hilley, art in Birmingham is not relegated just to museums.

"There is a tremendous art community here," she says. "There are 30 to 40 art galleries all over the city, and we have one of the fastest-growing independent film festivals in the country [the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival]," she says.

The Birmingham Civil Rights District, a six-block area in downtown Birmingham, pays homage to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, a notorious period when the eyes of the world were focused on the city and its sometimes brutal racial divide.

"We draw so many tourists and groups who are interested in our civil rights history, and if ever there was a city that played a role in the Civil Rights Movement, it is Birmingham," Hilley says. "The district includes the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which is an interactive museum that traces racial equality and human rights from the 1800s to the present day, and the 16th Street Baptist Church, which is infamous for being bombed in 1963. Today it attracts many people to worship and to just see the site because it was a turning point in the American Civil Rights Movement.

"Cattycorner to the church and across the street from the institute is historic Kelly Ingram Park, where the indelible footage of police dogs and fire hoses being turned on demonstrators took place. There is an audio tour through Kelly Ingram Park and many statues depicting the events that took place there," she adds.

Almost every attraction in the area has space for private functions, according to Hilley, including the McWane Center, the Civil Rights Institute and the Birmingham Museum of Art.

An interesting lure outside the downtown core is Rickwood Field, a nostalgic ode to America's past. Built in 1910, the classic structure is officially America's oldest baseball stadium. Since 2000, nearly $2 million has been spent restoring the National Pastime landmark to the look of its 1940s heyday. The stadium hosts more than 200 baseball games a year, including Major League exhibition games and its showcase event, the Annual Rickwood Classic, which pits the Birmingham Barons against a Minor League rival.

Icon of the City

Another unique attraction is Birmingham's Vulcan. The 55-foot high statue of the Roman god of fire and forge towers over the city as the second-largest statue in the U.S.—only the Statue of Liberty is larger—and the largest cast-iron statue in the world.

"Birmingham is a very colorful place, and I think that is one thing that groups enjoy as well," Hilley says. "They find that it is a very eclectic city where there are all sorts of people with all sorts of beliefs."

After a day of meetings and touring cultural attractions, delegates are sure to have worked up a healthy appetite, and Birmingham is up to the task.

"The dining scene in Birmingham has really taken off," Hilley enthuses. "It started when a homegrown boy named Frank Stitt returned from studying with Julia Child and the big chefs in New York to open his Highlands Bar and Grill, which Gourmet magazine named one of the top-five restaurants in the country. He has since opened two other restaurants here and others have followed suit. The selection of really excellent restaurants is astounding."

Beyond the city's downtown core, groups can meet at properties such as the luxurious Winfrey Hotel, which offers 329 guest rooms and 32,000 square feet of meeting space, the Birmingham Marriott, with 291 guest rooms and 13,000 square feet of meeting space, or the HealthSouth Conference Center, with 27,000 square feet of combined meeting space.

And in August, the Renaissance Ross Bridge Resort & Spa on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail (see sidebar) is scheduled to open in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover with 259 guest rooms and 20,000 square feet of meeting space.

For More Info

Greater Birmingham CVB     205.458.8000     www.sweetbirmingham.com