A Big Ass Difference: Birmingham Urban Trends Compared to Nashville

Philip A. Morris will begin his talk with a concise historic background to convey the character of late and ‘modern’ Birmingham; how its topography and primary industry shaped development; when the ‘city’ city had its greatest extent; how it did (and did not) use post-World War II tools like urban renewal; and the revitalization moves over the past 20 years. He will then end with current initiatives, both in the city center and close-in suburbs, showing how some of the assumptions (e.g. consolidation is great, fragmentation bad) bear a second look, at least as they have played out in Birmingham.

Philip A. Morris is a retired / freelance writer and lecturer. Educated at Rockford College in English Literature, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design as a Loeb Fellow in 1983-84, Mr. Morris has had a long and distinguished career at Southern Living magazine, where he began writing criticism in 1969 and became Executive Editor from 1976-91. He was Editor-At-Large for Southern Progress Corporation (Southern Accents, Southern Living, Coastal Living) from 1991-2000. He began writing on urbanism, landscape and building with the Oklahoma Journal from 1967-69. He has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, and his long list of magazine features is the testimony of a committed (and witty) urbanist.