Red Cross Building

This article is about the downtown building. For the current Red Cross headquarters, see Ridge Park.

The Red Cross Building (formerly the Social Security Building) is a vacant five-story office building at 2225 3rd Avenue North in downtown Birmingham.

The existing one-story Municipal Market at the site was extensively remodeled and expanded by Long & Gatling Architects for the City of Birmingham for lease to the United States Social Security Administration in 1946. The 125,000 square foot building served the agency until a massive 11-story Social Security Building was constructed near the BJCC in 1974.

The building was then renovated and expanded again in 1975 for the American Red Cross, the building's only tenant since that time. In 1998 the Red Cross moved to the renovated Rust Building at Ridge Park on Red Mountain.

In 2004 Operation New Birmingham put the vacant building on their 12 Most Wanted list of downtown buildings in need of renovation. Attorney Eric Guster purchased the building in 2015 for redevelopment. After renovations, it will house his Guster Law Firm and other tenants.

References

• "List of buildings recently designed by Long & Gatling, Architects" typescript (June 14, 1950), in "Architects & Architecture", Vol. 2 of material compiled by Hill Ferguson for the cornerstone vault in Birmingham City Hall
• Tomberlin, Michael (February 13, 2011) "Downtown dreams: Renovation slow for prominent buildings." The Birmingham News
• Diel, Stan (February 24, 2011) "Sign of times past uncovered downtown." The Birmingham News
• Godwin, Brent (October 13, 2015) "Lawyer plans massive mixed-use project on Third Avenue North." Birmingham Business Journal