Art Deco style buildings are not commonplace in my home state of Kentucky, so when I saw a 23-foot tall golden statue of Electra high above the streets of Birmingham, on top of an Art Deco building with dramatic setbacks, strong vertical lines, and geometric patterns – I stopped, gawking.
Electra atop the Alabama Power Building.
The Alabama Power Building was the first (according to some sources) Art Deco skyscraper constructed in the booming Birmingham of the 1920s. The 16-story brick building was designed by Warren, Knight and Davis, an architectural firm in Birmingham.
The 1925 building, with a 1990 addition on the right.
Before the nude, 4,000 pound statue of Electra (dedicated on May 10, 1926) graced the top of the building, however, there was some discussion about a large electric sign defining the roofline of the new skyscraper. William T. Warren, the lead architect, argued against the inclusion of neon, and for the ideals of the company to instead be represented by the lithe Electra, lightning bolts clasped firmly in her hands.
Electra was designed by the New York sculptor Edward Field Stanford, Jr, who also carved the figures on the limestone entrance portal on 18th Street. (She is rumored to be the paramour of another Birmingham landmark – Vulcan Iron Man.)
The 18th Street entrance is very heavily ornamented with columns and classical figures.
The three, eight-foot high stone carvings, set beneath a band of rosettes and above the company name, represent “power,” “light,” and “heat.”
A detail of the entryway.
Stepping underneath the figures, toward the gilded double doors, is like stepping into a rainbow.
An explosion of color greets the eye overhead as you walk toward the entry doors.
An amazing chandelier of Gothic-looking lanterns is suspended from a vibrant ceiling swirling with shapes and colors.
The Alabama Power Building, circa 1927. Image from the Architecture & Design Collection at Birmingham Public Library Archives.
This section of downtown Birmingham has changed a great deal since Electra first took her perch above the city streets – but I was gratified to find this striking Art Deco building still dominating its corner, and delighting the gawking architectural historian.
Janie-Rice, loved the photos and description of the electric power building. It was designed, I think, to illustrate the power of the utility company. That Gothic chandelier is so distinctive! Love the entire building.
Janie-Rice, loved the photos and description of the electric power building. It was designed, I think, to illustrate the power of the utility company. That Gothic chandelier is so distinctive! Love the entire building.
Warren, Knight and Davis was Alabama’s preeminent architectural firm of the era and this building is one of their best and most prominent works.
Birmingham does not get much credit nationally for its architectural heritage, but it is has a large number of high-quality architectural landmarks set within a landscape of “ordinary” historic buildings. Birmingham was sometimes known as the Pittsburgh of the South, and its architecture reflects that: think Pittsburgh architecture with some “Southern-ness” added. It is a little more intact than Pittsburgh, without as much of the vacant urban wastelands that characterize some of the formerly historic areas of that city; though, Birmingham is experiencing some demolition right now, for vacant lots due to neglect in some areas and for cookie-cutter overdevelopment in other areas.