Dear Architects: About Designing Alabama's New Prisons

     At some point, Alabama is going to have to do something about its falling down, outrageously overcrowded prisons.

     At least part of the solution will be construction to replace some of the existing buildings.

     And there is now pressure on the professionals who will design them---architects--- to say no to designing isolation cells and death chambers. A new column points out that "Fewer than 3 percent of licensed architects in the United States are African-American."

"...  death chambers and many solitary confinement cells — they’re officially called segregation units, not incidentally — are extreme cases. Architects should not contribute their expertise to the most egregious aspects of a system that commits exceptional violence against African-Americans and other minorities."

     That's from an opinion column in today's N.Y. Times aimed at architects. 
     Who will design Alabama's new prisons? Will they heed this call? In this economy, will any architect just say no to a big contract?

     Last Fall the Governor's office announced four teams being considered for the job:

• Alabama Prison Transformation Partners: Star America; BL Harbert International; Butler-Cohen; Arrington Watkins Architects; and Johnson Controls, Inc.

• CoreCivic: CoreCivic; Caddell Construction; DLR Group; and R&N Systems Design

• Corvias: Corvias; Municipal Capital Markets Group; HDR Architecture; JE Dunn Construction (no relation to ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn) &; CORE Construction (joint venture); TKC Management Services; TreanorHL; Seay, Seay & Litchfield Architects; White-Spunner Construction; Mead & Hunt; and Baldwin Consulting Group

• GEO Group: GEO; White Construction Company; and NELSON Wakefield Beasley & Associates