Buncombe County Human Services
This seven-story Human Services Building addition was a much-needed expansion for the Buncombe County Health and Human Services Department. This Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) project was built in the heart of the city with exceptionally tight limits of construction and the accompanying parking and laydown issues. This was accomplished by utilizing a 165’ tall tower crane with a 177’ reach. The 74 caisson foundations, each roughly 70’ deep and six-feet in diameter, provides excellent stability for these structures and interestingly unearthed some artifacts from almost 100 years ago.
The street level entrance opens into a welcoming lobby that extends into the partially renovated first floor with service desks and waiting areas and features self-service kiosks. The upper floors provide offices and conference spaces, and also offers expansive views of the surrounding WNC mountains.
The new adjacent eight story parking deck added over 650 new parking spaces to an Asheville downtown that has grown more densely occupied and active each year. It provides dedicated parking for HHS employees and tenants as well as for the general public. Located one block from the city center it provides easy access to the dozens of restaurants, music and theater venues, breweries, and shopping opportunities that make Asheville attractive to tourists and residents.
For local history buffs, this site is built upon the debris from the old Battery Park Hotel a century ago. This debris was used to fill a gulley along Coxe Ave. After demolishing the old Battery Park Hotel, Battery Park Hill was cut down to its current elevation back in the early 1920’s by Mr. Edwin Grove and Mr. Tench Coxe.