The completed renovation of a nursery building

The completed renovation of a nursery building from the 1920s gives Historic Malbis in Daphne, Alabama, an architectural focal point and a link to the Greek farmers who first settled on the site in the early 1900s. The 2,500 square-foot building will house a community center and a permanent exhibit on the history of the Malbis Plantation. The five acres surrounding the nursery feature many mature trees and plants that have added character to the emerging neighborhood, says architect Keith Bullock of Spencer Maxwell Bullock Architects. The 150-acre Historic Malbis currently has about 25 homes completed and 25 more under construction. Bullock says lessons learned on other developments have paid off in Malbis. Instead of issuing written guidelines to builders, Bullock and his colleagues turned to a pattern book and gained more control of the building process. The architects also improved streetscapes by convincing the developer to build alleys and by working with town officials to accept a narrower right-of-way.