‘Meet me at The Circle’: Mountain Brook Village advocates seek Village Circle redesign

Life in Mountain Brook centers around its three villages: English Village, Crestline Village and Mountain Brook Village.

Mountain Brook Village is perhaps the most iconic.

It was part of Mountain Brook Estates, the pioneering development created by Birmingham real estate icon Robert Jemison Jr. beginning in 1929.

Some of the lovely older commercial buildings on Village Circle are part of Jemison’s creation. And when he needed a landscape architect, Jemison turned to the leading figure of his day, Warren Manning, who worked for the famed Olmsted firm.

Village Circle is “a historic American landscape,” said Sim Johnson, chair of the city’s Board of Landscape Design (BLD).

The members of the BLD and city officials now seek to give this iconic site a fresh look.

With the help of the city and private donations, the BLD is assembling what Johnson calls “a dream team” of national and local landscape designers and plant experts to honor Village Circle’s rich heritage while remaking it as a pedestrian-friendly haven that could help boost area eateries and merchants in a vibrant, walkable Mountain Brook Village.

This initiative will take advantage of what is likely the permanent closure of Canterbury Road at Cahaba Road due to traffic concerns.

On Aug. 24, the Mountain Brook City Council unanimously approved the city’s participation in a study of design and landscape options for Village Circle. Those options include combining the traffic islands on Cahaba Road in front of Realty South and Gilchrist.

The lead firm in the study will be The Olin Studio, a famed landscape architecture firm based in Philadelphia that redesigned Columbus Circle in New York City.

The study will also involve plant designers Landau Design + Technology from Philadelphia and local landscape architects Joel Eliason and Dave Giddens of Nimrod Long & Associates.

The costs for the city will be $16,500 for the Olin Studio design fee plus the cost of combining the traffic islands.

However, the city is not obligated to pay the Olin fee until Johnson is able to raise additional private monies of about $55,000 to pay for the rest of the design costs on the project.

Private donations will pay the $34,500 planting design fee and additional fees for the local landscape architects and traffic engineers.

The council also discussed the BLD proposal Aug. 10, and members and Mayor Stewart Welch expressed strong support.

“I know when we close Canterbury Road, some money will have to be expended, so I like this approach,” City Council President Virginia Smith said. “It’s a tight fiscal year, but we’re talking about a major centerpiece of our entire city, and this will start it in the right direction.”

“I think it is too prominent a place not to do it,” Councilor Alice Womack said.

“It makes perfect sense to me,” Welch said.

BALANCING ACT

Jemison envisioned Village Circle as “an entrance to the community, to the city,” BLD member and Mountain Brook Village resident Tommy Amason later told Village Living.

“I think it would be very appropriate to have an inviting native garden setting to welcome you to the community,” he said.

In Amason’s view, Village Circle could also use a fresh look. “It’s sort of barren-looking,” he said. “It has nothing but some oak trees. It needs some formal planting.”

To honor the past while making it new again is a delicate balancing act, project backers said.

“It’s a beautiful walking village, but more important, it has heart and soul, and I think it’s important to hold on to that as we move forward with improvements,” said Lydia Pursell, a BLD member who owns Leaf & Petal garden shop.

It is that balancing act that draws Olin to the project, said Judy Venonsky, the firm’s living systems specialist and go-to plant expert.

“It’s quite interesting for us to add on to that Olmstedian vision in a contemporary way and take something that has a storied history and add to that layer of history with what we are designing,” Venonsky said.

“Olin would be hired to design the concept, essentially what would be the best use for these traffic circles if Canterbury Road was permanently closed,” Johnson said Aug. 10. “And then we would have a group of plant experts, which would be designing what would grow best in these traffic islands, looking at how we get the most resilient, most attractive plantings with limited input — as far as management, labor, replacement costs, water, fertilizer.”

There are hopes that a redesigned Village Circle will help local businesses, perhaps by adding seating on the traffic islands.

“I think again having people congregate socially and being around those businesses will activate the space in general,” Venonsky said.

“I think a well-landscaped area that will encourage pedestrians to come and sit will always be good for merchants and not just food but your boutiques, as well,” Smith told Village Living.

The site does have some challenges, though, Smith said.

“It’s a small space, but it’s a difficult space,” she said, “You’ve got traffic, and you’ve got trees and no telling what we have underground.”

Venonsky agrees that Village Circle is a “tiny little space” and poses an “intriguing” design problem.

“But it’s also in a very vibrant area” and the potential exists to “create some interesting space within it that allows for people to congregate,” she said.

“Safety is a big challenge when you’re dealing with traffic in any situation,” said Venonsky, noting that traffic engineering will be a big part of the plan.

“It’s all about the community, the businesses and giving proper access to those driving in the village and walking around,” Pursell said. “As we grow as a community, things have to be tweaked a bit. What seems like a big change in the beginning is designed to bring seamless vehicle flow and more importantly safety to pedestrians, a lot of them children. This is a design for all.”

The design team will seek to use native plants in an effective, sophisticated way with combination of human expertise and computer modeling, Johnson said.

“We should be able to arrive at a really well-researched plan for what will grow best in Village Circle that will be attractive and also beneficial for the environment,” he said.

EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS

Some project supporters believe it will attract positive attention to Mountain Brook.

“I think that if we set it up properly and have the right people on board to herald our news, it would be a regional project to put Mountain Brook and Birmingham and Alabama on the map,” Amason said.

In addition, organizers intend to make this database of native plants available to other municipalities in the Birmingham area, and Village Circle could also serve as a display garden to show people the possibilities of low-maintenance planting, Johnson said.

Being part of the project and seeing the other volunteers who are putting in their time makes Pursell proud of the community, she said.

“There are many devoting their personal time, who care so much about our villages,” she said. “Nothing is decided without exploring the impact it will have long term. We have talked for hours about a tree. Yes, this project will be beautiful, but it has hundreds of man hours behind it to ensure it is functional and the best idea.”

Pursell has her own notions of what the site could become.

“My vision for Village Circle is a place to meet up with friends before you go shopping or to lunch,” she said. “‘Meet me at The Circle.’ That would be nice to hear.”

She is optimistic about the ultimate result. “So much time, energy and heart is going into this project,” she said. “I feel confident it will be a sensible and lovely space.”

At press time, the design firms and city officials were finalizing contracts, and fundraising for the design phase was nearly complete, Johnson said.

Once work begins on the design, the work should take “a few months,” Venonsky said.

Johnson told Councilor Philip Black on August 10 that it was difficult to project an estimated final budget for the construction of the entire project.

“I don’t think we can put out a number just yet because we don’t know what this study will reveal,” Johnson said.

Project backers “have no preconceptions about what has to happen” until the study is done, he said

“If Olin comes up with this really grand design, the city will not be asked to pay in excess of what it would otherwise pay to combine those two islands,” Johnson said.

For more information regarding the project, such as how to make a memorial gift or honorarium in support of the construction phase, contact simeonjohnson@msn.com.