The Thomas Building

The Thomas building, located at iconic Toomer’s Corner in downtown Auburn, Alabama, has been part of Auburn history since the late 1800’s. The Thomas Building is named for John Madison Thomas who originally developed much of what is now downtown Auburn; the vision from the beginning included honoring the rich Thomas family history, while replacing the building with a design that would fit seamlessly in its place.

The project design started in 2016; construction began in May 2018 and was completed in August 2019.  The building houses BBVA Bank on the first two floors with three luxury apartments located on the top floor. A shell space was provided for BBVA’s use, and each apartment features two bedrooms, rooftop access and a balcony overlooking Toomer’s Corner and Samford Hall.

The design team was sensitive to the surrounding context of Toomer’s and the Samford Lawn part of campus, following cues regarding height and massing, while working within the rhythm of surrounding structures.  A subtle, but diverse brick palette was selected in order to use masonry in a textural way.  The masonry material was used to organize the building through layering of the different colors of brick and manipulated to add depth to a façade limited by building use and property lines.