Can a building be good journalism? Does architecture tell a story?Are bricks and steel and wood the stuff of community newspapering?
Yes. Consolidated Publishing’s new building…in this place…at this time is the who, what, when and how of journalism.
The roofline is our headline. It is the direct descendent of gables and clerestory windows in Anniston’s original foundries.
When building designer David Hogan saw what remains of our factories, he captured the picture in architecture.
The lobby of this building is the belly button between the production wing and the offices.
We so much wanted an industrial snapshot, we left the exposed steel natural. We let it rust.
The founders of Anniston planted trees. They wanted thousands of trees to go with their new industry.
We planted some. We also simply left many hardwoods alone.
We shifted the building to save them. We fought contractors to save trees.
The trees we cut were mostly beetle-infested pines. Our construction footprint is only half the site.
Nature is a part of the text of the story this building tells. The outdoors come indoors.
Windows in view of every worker give us a look upon the world as Anniston pioneers saw it.
Generations knew only Fort McClellan here. Our time saw the Army depart.
This special building stakes an economic claim on reclamation and redevelopment of a deserted garrison.
This place is in the community. The structure grows from community. The design stands for the community.
My fellow workers feel tremendously energized by the new job place. We feel a burst of creativity.
We come to work every day to hold a mirror up for all the community to see itself.
This very building defines community journalism. It tells a story of time and place.
I am an editor. I look for the heart of the story.
I tell you it is this: Without patronage, there is no art.
Journalism must have a sponsor. Storytelling must have a producer.
One family in Northeast Alabama has filled that role in Anniston for generations.
H. Brandt and Josephine Ayers and Phillip and Elise Sanguinetti bear that mantle well.
This building is their legacy. It symbolizes their hope for community journalism to come.
They are the patrons of the art of this newspaper building.
Brandt Ayers is the sponsor of its journalism as publisher. He protects the storytelling we do here.
For years Brandy saw to it this community would have a newspaper to tell the community story. He wants that family sense of community journalism to continue into the future.
On behalf of the town…on behalf of journalism…on behalf of the future…Thanks to the patrons of newspapering in Anniston.
Journalism must have shelter.
Now this sheltering place is part of the community and works to tell the story too.
This building is good journalism.
— Chris Waddle, Executive Editor
Adapted from Sept. 29 remarks at the dedication of Consolidated Publishing Co.’s new building.
