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.