The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has opened its first new parking deck in over 20 years just ahead of the scheduled closing of Lot 5A.   

After more than a year of construction, the 14th Street Parking Deck is now open to commuters. The $36 million, 405,000-square-foot parking deck at 14th Street South and Seventh Avenue adds more than 1,150 new parking spaces to campus. The deck has a limited amount of parking reserved for Cooper Green Mercy Health Services patients and employees. The remaining spaces on Level 2 and above are pay-by-the-hour parking for faculty, staff, students and visitors. 

Lot 5A, located between the Hill Student Center and Volker Hall, will close and be replaced by the new Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and Psychology Building.

“We’re excited to say that the new 14th Street Parking Deck adds nearly four times the number of spaces removed by the closure of Lot 5A,” said Brian Atkinson, executive director of UAB Transportation. “We expect our campus community will be happy with the additional parking convenient to the Hill Student Center and campus core.”  

This summer, UAB will break ground on the 225,000 square foot Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and Psychology Building, an eight-story facility with wet and dry labs that will house the research-intensive departments of the Heersink School of Medicine as well as the Department of Psychology. Lot 5A will be permanently closed beginning June 10 to make way for construction. The building is projected for completion in summer 2026.  

NOTE: UAB is constructing a $190 million Biomedical Research and Psychology Building. The project is supported by $152 million of federal funding (80% of the project budget) from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The remaining $38 million (20% of the project budget) is not federal funds.