Design behind the scenes

On her honeymoon in Maine, Dana Hazen was looking down a commercial street when she noticed something. A structure with a style identical to the homes in the quaint town wasn’t a house at all.

It was a McDonald’s.

“The only thing that gave it away was a small set of golden arches on the front door,” she said.

At that time, the 24 year old committed it to memory, and since then it’s served her well. As the current city planner for Mountain Brook, she’s helped create many of the protocols that protect the charm of the villages.

“I’ve never forgotten that,” she said. “If a business really wants to be somewhere, they’ll do what they have to.”

With every business that wishes to build in Mountain Brook, a process takes place behind the scenes. What’s first proposed is rarely what residents see on the streets. A host of people chartered with maintaining aesthetics guide these businesses, but one of the first stops in the process is Village Design Review (VDR). 

VDR is a board of eight residents that advises businesses on the design of their buildings and signage. With exteriors, its role is advisory. But when it comes to signs, VDR has the final word.

“The City of Mountain Brook wants to encourage people to have successful businesses,” said James Carter, a local architect and chairman of VDR. “Our goal is to make those businesses as visible as possible while still fitting in with village standards.”

One of the main reasons VDR exists is to act as a liaison for corporate entities. For larger companies, “branding is a holy word,” Hazen said.  

“Most businesses anywhere want to shout their names to the sky because they’re excited,” she said. “So, they wrap their buildings in their logo 10 times because they believe it will attract more customers. You’ve got to have someone to put the reins on that.”

A corporation might have a visual image it wants to project, Carter said, and VDR is there to show these companies that Mountain Brook customers are interested in preserving the historical nature and pedestrian feel of the villages.

For example, when it was first drafted, the IberiaBank building in Mountain Brook Village appeared as something much different than what’s currently on Cahaba Road. In fact, the design was based on a corporate template seen in other communities.

 “It was a nice-looking building, but it didn’t reflect the quality of the village or what people were hoping to see,” said James Carter, a local architect and chairman of VDR.

The company worked through multiple designs with VDR, each time being asked to reconsider to more fit the context of the area. VDR doesn’t have authority to dictate design, so at any point the company was free to decide to ignore VDR’s advice.

Instead, the company brought in local architect Hank Long to help meet VDR’s requests. Together Long and VDR created a design to complement the look of the community.

Long’s initial design came back from VDR with comments, but it only took one more meeting for the committee to approve them. Now, the bank’s buildings in Mountain Brook and Crestline Villages are regarded as welcome additions. The end result boasts a stone exterior and interior that feels more like a living room than a lobby. 

“In the court of public opinion, if people don’t like something it’s a hard thing to ignore,” Carter said. “We said that we wished they could do something a little more kind to the community, and they really stepped up to the plate. And I’ve received lots of positive feedback from the public.”