Editing Birmingham, Alabama (section)

===Urban planning in Birmingham===
[[File:Railroad Park, Birmingham.jpg|thumb|Birmingham Railroad Park]]

Before the first structure was built in Birmingham, the plan of the city was laid out over a total of {{convert|1160|acre|km2}} by the directors of the Elyton Land Co. The streets were numbered from west to east, leaving Twentieth Street to form the central spine of downtown, anchored on the north by Capital Park and stretching into the slopes of Red Mountain to the south. A "railroad reservation" was granted through the center of the city, running east to west and zoned solely for industrial uses. As the city grew, bridges and underpasses separated the streets from the railroad bed, lending this central reservation some of the impact of a river (without the pleasant associations of a waterfront). From the start, Birmingham's streets and avenues were unusually wide at 80 to 100&nbsp;feet (24 to 30&nbsp;m), purportedly to help evacuate unhealthy smoke.

In the early 20th century professional planners helped lay out many of the new industrial settlements and [[company town]]s in the Birmingham District, including Corey (now [[Fairfield, Alabama|Fairfield]]) which was developed for the [[Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company]] (subsequently purchased by [[United States Steel Corporation|U.S. Steel]]). At the same time, a movement to consolidate several neighboring cities gained momentum. Although local referendums indicated mixed feelings about annexation, the Alabama legislature enacted an expansion of Birmingham's corporate limits that became effective on January 1, 1910.

The Robert Jemison company developed many residential neighborhoods to the south and west of Birmingham which are still renowned for their aesthetic quality.

A 1924 plan for a system of parks, commissioned from the [[Olmsted Brothers]] is seeing renewed interest with several significant new parks and greenways under development. Birmingham officials have approved a City Center Master Plan developed by Urban Design Associates of Pittsburgh, which advocates strongly for more residential development in the downtown area. The plan also called for a major park over several blocks of the central railroad reservation: [[Railroad Park]], which opened in 2010. Along with Ruffner Mountain Park and [[Red Mountain Park]], Birmingham ranks first in the United States for public green space per resident.