On June 10, 1958, university officials obtained 10-and-a-half blocks adjacent to the University of Alabama Medical Center, situated at 20th Street South and Seventh Avenue, for an urban renewal project, which allowed campus to grow west from its original four blocks. This photograph of the 800 block of 17th Street South, currently occupied by the Learning Resource Center, shows the poor conditions found west of campus at the time. University Hospital and the Veterans Affairs Hospital are visible in the distance.
Standing on the northeast terrace of UAB’s new University Hall Building, located at 10th Avenue South and 14th Street, one can look across the Campus Green and see the tops of those buildings peek out above other campus growth from the past five decades, including the Campus Recreation Center, the Ryals Public Health Building and Volker Hall.
University Hall opens Aug. 22 and will house the departments of anthropology, computer science, English, foreign languages and literatures, mathematics, philosophy and social work.