“The powers-that-be of Asheville and Buncombe are slowly drowning the golden goose of what used to be such an appealing and attractive downtown. When will local architects and grassroots organizations join forces to bail out the boat?”

Asheville’s New High-Rises Miss The Mark
By Byron Belzak

First off, I’m no architect. But I have visited a few of the great cities of the world, most notably Paris, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Prague. One would have to be blind not to see them for what they are: architectural beauties.

Yet, with each new building or proposed project in Asheville, it’s becoming clearer by the day that our fair mountain city is at risk of losing its most-famous public relations tag line: “Paris of the South.”

Admittedly, “taste” is subjective. Yet, I’m starting to get a bad case of dog breath. I wonder if any local architects with a beating heart and a stamped passport are in need of a mint, too. I mean, this ain’t the South Buncombe suburb where box-store buildings and plaster-clad retail shopping strips are considered architecture of distinction.
 
HAND ME MY PILLOW

Without being too brutally honest, downtown Asheville’s newest and largest buildings conjure up a four-letter word: Y-A-W-N. I wonder when tourists and would-be newcomers will take note, too. Am I being brutal yet?

For me, this giant yawn has been a growing issue. It began several years ago when I had an office in the historic Flat Iron building. I watched with great interest, day-by-day, as the across-the-street demolition of the low-rise JC Penney building gave rise to a new high-rise condominium. I had great expectations for the new neighbor.

The artist renderings of the new condo-to-be added more fuel to my hopes. Images of the Gardens of Babylon still come to mind. Yet I had a legitimate worry that something lackluster would result. As a former editor of several real estate magazines, including “Condominiums Magazine,” which covered metro Atlanta when it was truly Hotlanta, many an artist rendering that crossed my desk inevitably lost its artistry by the time the project manager was done with it.

Still I had such hope that the finished luxury condominium high-rise on Battery Park would resemble the artist renderings. I’m sorry to report that I am still waiting for the builder to catch up with the artist.

ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO

Since that time, as I look at our city’s new construction and renderings of proposed buildings, it’s becoming painfully obvious that private and public developers are marching to the beat of a ho-hum drum. Can you say, “Bean counter?” Hello, folks, we’re not growing potatoes here; we’re supposed to be growing a more beautiful Crystal City.

Good stewardship of the land and resources is good policy, whether it is done in the city or in the countryside. The Asheville-Buncombe politicians and bureaucrats of City-County Plaza, who never forget to collect their taxpayer-enabled paychecks, apparently miss that fact. It’s our collective loss.

While local City-County officials and boosters can certainly make a case for doing their job, I believe that we as citizens of one of the most beautiful places in the world (for now) hold them to a higher standard. Asheville, particularly downtown, is such a gem, a unique architectural and pedestrian friendly oasis. It deserves better than the standard fare of forgettable buildings found ad nausea in other American cities.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL

While the recent news of two newly proposed high-rise, parking garages planned for construction in downtown Asheville is certainly welcomed, both structures had the chance of becoming towering showcases of civic pride. Obviously, it’s not going to happen with this current crew. Can you say, dunderhead?

The newly announced Coxe Avenue parking deck is your same ol’ plain Jane garage, when it could have been a beacon, a civic model, of doing something fantastic for that most uninspiring section of town. One small idea: include an open-air marketplace, of the likes of The Straw Market in Nassau ala Appalachia, that could help local entrepreneurs, generate tax revenue, give Asheville citizens something to crow about and attract tourists.

The five-story or so steel-and-concrete yawn of a garage set to be erected across the street from the Buncombe County Courthouse and positioned next to the Renaissance Hotel and Thomas Wolfe house is a most saddening example of lackluster city-county leadership, vision and creativity. With these two proposed garages, our current stewards have missed two wonderful civic opportunities; it almost pains me to write about it.

Idea Number Two: the newly proposed Courthouse/Renaissance/Thomas Wolfe City Garage could have been designed with a city garden park installed on its top floor. In addition, over time, it could have been home to a host of statues produced by local artists and artisans. Better still, this entire parking deck could be buried as an underground parking lot and the ground converted in to an extension of the planned Pack Square park.

Of course, any Ashevillian knows that if you want something done right in this town, it’s going to take a rich, benevolent private citizen or a motivated grassroots organization to get the job done. Can you say, in one breath, George Willis Pack, George Vanderbilt, Julian Price and PARC?

And with all of the new highways that local, state and federal officials and their minions are pushing upon our dear Asheville – perhaps to match their friends newly bulldozed and denuded mountains just up the road in Woodfin – this brave, new Asheville might have to change its tourist tagline to: “Crasheville: Motor City of the South.”

Activists, start your engines.

Copyright 2007 MediaBear
 
Editor's Note: This "Mountains of Art" column first appeared in Rapid River Magazine, April 2007

Rrmoa7aprildtagaragesmissedopbb3dta0522bb1
Rrmoa7aprildtagaragesmissedopbb3