University of Alabama Nott Hall

Birmingham, Alabama

This structure houses the Honors College, Rural Scholars Program, Rural Health, and Biological Sciences Microbiology labs and contains general office space. Nott Hall was built in 1922 as the university’s medical school building. The structure was named after the founder of the school, Dr. Josiah Nott, and is primarily masonry, brick and stone veneer. Large, wood windows and doors are located on all elevations of the structure, and the front elevation has a large decorative, raised entry portico adorned with large vertical columns.

The problems with this historic structure included water leakage at the window areas due to age of the structure and materials. Many years of maintenance, along with recommendations from the design team, resulted in removal of the existing large, single pane windows with the installation of new monolithic flashings and high efficiency aluminum windows.

The challenges for the project included the age of the structure, meeting the needs of the university’s schedule, and the building had to remain open for use during construction. The results of these challenges required careful planning with the school and the selected contractor, required the windows to be installed from the exterior, demanded the windows be able to be removed from the exterior during future work, at no point could the windows be left open or unprotected due to the occupancy, and the materials selected had to work within tight schedule parameters.