Asheville's tallest getting converted to hotel/residential
 

Asheville's tallest building, the 50 year old BB&T building, is getting converted into hotel/condos with two restaurants. It will get all new cladding. The residential portion is already 25% reserved as of this past fall.

Current design:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3005/2...f5f0fb4b_o.jpg

New design:

http://i.imgur.com/C2r3UDP.jpg

A couple other designs that have floated around:

http://i.imgur.com/MmwBF9m.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OnNW2fR.jpg

Details: http://www.citizen-times.com/story/n...ment/90806516/

That's pretty impressive.

I'm excited about this! What a beautiful building it will be!!

I've waited a long time for this. This building has been the turd in the punchbowl.

Has this started yet? Or any news on when it will?

Well underway. This photo is from the first week of June:

http://i.imgur.com/FZy2E7o.png
Source: http://www.citizen-times.com/story/n...ons/358429001/

Wow!!
It's well underway!! Exciting! Really going strong since I was there this past December.

I was there to visit my parents, recently. They had all of the cladding removed, except for the mechanical/equipment floor. I was surprised to see so much work completed! I'm guessing all of the cladding is likely removed by now?

As someone who grew-up in Asheville, I'm not sure how I feel about this. It was a good example of the International Style. Architect Gene Whittington was inspired by the work of Mies van der Rohe. It's based on Mies' One Charles Center in Baltimore. I have a few color slides I found of it, under construction. It's interesting to see the skeleton without the cladding, in person. If you go to the site and see it up-close, the floor plates have notches in them, for the cladding they are removing. I am concerned about the quality (tacky) of the redesign, but maybe this will look better than the renderings? With the addition on the roof, this will become Asheville's tallest.

Compare to One Charles Center by Mies van der Rohe: http://www.onecharlescenter.com

It's interesting to see Post Modernism return to popularity, again.

They're calling it neo-deco I believe. Which is a modern interpretation of Art Deco?

Would someone care to post any current photos of how far along the building currently is?

Ahoy!

Anyone there? Might any Asheville folks post photos of the new projects, such as Arras, Cambria, Dept. of Human Services, etc? Would be much appreciated.

I may be taking a trip to Asheville to see for myself in the next month or so. Not sure about that yet.

Again I ask,
photos of the newest in Asheville? Arras? Cambria? I'm afraid I haven't been able to get there like I wanted to. Possibly next month.

Well, I finally made it to Asheville today and it's wonderful seeing all the activity and the new buildings. Cambria turned out nicely and is quite noticeable on the skyline when approaching from the west.
Arras is coming along nicely! They've made a lot of progress on the new facade with quite a ways still left to go.

Any recent photos of this? It was “naked” last time I was in town. Guess I need to plan a visit!

I have a friend who recently moved to Asheville, and he says it's still got a lot of scafolding, etc. But yes, a new photo would be great.