CULLMAN, Ala. – Architect Paul Callan is helping redesign some of the same school buildings where he once attended classes, including the space where he studied drafting at Cullman High School.
Callan, a 1989 Cullman High graduate, is a senior project manager at Hoover-based Lathan McKee Architects. His work with Cullman City Schools includes renovations at Cullman Middle School, the new Cullman Intermediate School at the former West Elementary campus and the STEM and Career Tech Center at Cullman High.
Callan attended East Elementary and Cullman Middle School before graduating from Cullman High and earning an architecture degree from Auburn University.
His return to the district began when Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff and the school board selected his firm to work on the Cullman Middle School renovation.
“It was a school I had attended many years before, and it was virtually unchanged from the classrooms where I was taught, the locker-lined hallways I had roamed and the gymnasium where I had played,” Callan said.
A campus tour brought back memories but also revealed the need to update the facilities. The project replaced outdated spaces and added classrooms and other amenities while working within the existing campus.
Callan said his experience on other architectural projects helped prepare him for the work, but the connection to his hometown made the middle school project different.
“Having been fortunate to be a part of the design and construction of several large, high-profile projects over the years, I have felt first-hand the pride of helping deliver a long-awaited new building to a client,” he said.
The ceremonies marking progress at Cullman Middle School carried particular meaning for him.
“I’m not sure any ground-breaking or ribbon-cutting ceremony, however, was any more enjoyable than those attended on that campus, in my own hometown,” Callan said.
His subsequent projects with the district included an opportunity to redesign the building where he took drafting classes as a high school student preparing for a career in architecture.
Callan said the designs do not repeat a single historic or architectural feature across the district. Instead, each project aims to fit into its existing campus. His familiarity with the schools and their role in the community informs those decisions, he said.
“I feel like I have a truly vested interest,” Callan said. “Ironically, I am now renovating and making new again the same spaces where I, too, once was taught.”
He said he hopes the updated classrooms might eventually help another student follow a similar path.
“It seems possible there is perhaps another Cullman youngster at a desk in one of those new classrooms that may have a similar opportunity to also pay it forward in 35 years,” Callan said. “I’d like to think so.”
