Paul S. Worrell Building

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c. 1960 photograph of the Doctor's Center by Fritz Woehle

The Paul S. Worrell Building (originally the Doctors' Center) was a 7-story office building constructed in 1960 by a group of physicians aligned as the "Doctor's Center Corporation". It was located at 924 18th Street South between 9th and 10th Avenues South.

The building was designed by Fritz Woehle, who moved his offices to the 7th floor. The modern curtain-wall building with exposed concrete frame and cantilevering floor slabs contained four doctor's suites on each floor, with the ground floor opened up for valet parking service. Brasfield & Gorrie completed the construction of the building at a cost of $500,000. A second, 10-story Doctors' Center tower of the same type was designed by Woehle for a site on 17th Street South behind the original in 1966. It went out for bid in January 1967, but was never constructed.

With a large gift from optometrist Paul Worrell and his wife Sylvia, UAB purchased the building in 1985. On October 14, 1988 the building was rededicated in Worrell's honor. It was renovated to house UAB's Department of Vision Sciences, the Vision Science Graduate Program, and the Vision Science Research Center for the UAB School of Optometry. Among the building's facilities were administrative offices, research laboratories, a machine shop, electronics shop, a tissue processing and histology center, and the Sylvia D. Worrell Conference Center.

UAB's request to demolish the building was approved by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in June 2017 and by the Birmingham Design Review Committee in February 2018. The building was demolished in February 2019.

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