UNC Asheville prepares campus for two
influential construction projects
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PHOTO BY MiCHAELA HALL
Julio, a construction worker, takes a break from
working on the roof of Highsmith.
MAGGIE HADDOCK
News Staff Writer
nnhaddock@unca.edu
UNC Asheville begins construction for five
apartment-style residences, a community director
apartment and an addendum to Highsmith in May;
The projects were largely guided by student input,
and multiple workshops were conducted by project
designers in order to work directly with the student
body. The apartment-style residences will house
294 students in an effort to grant more returning
students the option of on-campus housing.
“One of the things we looked for as a committee
was how the designers interact with the students
and how they took student feedback,” said Vollie
Barnwell, director of housing and student life op
erations.
Student feedback became crucial to the housing
project, according to Barnwell.
“From a designer’s standpoint it would be really
easy to come in and kind of do it on their own and
not get student feedback, but our designers from
both projects were great. They came in and did sev
eral workshops,” Barnwell said.
The campus has long awaited apartment-style
housing, according to Nancy Yeager, associate vice
chancellor for student affairs.
“Unlike a lot of our other sister campuses, we do
not have any apartment-style housing on campus,”
Yeager said. “This has been something that we re
ally need, in addition to the fact that students have
wanted to live on campus and haven’t been able to.”
Susan Richey, a senior music student at UNCA,
said she would take advantage of apartment-style
housing if it were available to her.
“I wanted to be bn campus my first year here but
I became really tired of living on campus,” Richey
said. “It just didn’t feel like an adult apartment.”
Richey, who transferred from UNC Wilmington,
said apartment-style housing was available to her
there.
. “I thought it was great,” Richey said. “It was
great to be on campus. It was great to be around
people who are my age who wanted to live on cam
pus. You didn’t feel like you were staying in a dor
mitory. You didn’t have to go to RA meetings and
stuff like that. It was kind of like a more indepen
dent housing situation.”
According to Yeager, the new apartment-style
housing will have four to six bedrooms. Every suite
will have a full kitchen, a living area and two bath
rooms.
WE CAN BUILD ANYTHING
AND HAVE STUDENTS LIVE
THERE, BUT IT’S BEHERTD
BUILD WHAT STUDENTS REALLY
WANT.”
-VOLLIE BARNWELL
The residential village, will be along Founders
Drive. Two of the buildings will sit on the outskirts
of the botanical gardens and the remaining three
will reside on the current P22 parking lot behind
Brown Hall.
“There are also plans for another building that
will have a rnultipurpose room, a fitness room and
it’s also where the community director apartment
will be,” Yeager said.
Plans for a new parking deck remain tentative in
the construction process, Yeager said. New park
ing, accounting for 110 parking spaces will become
available in lot P29. The lot, which has existed for
about 5 or 6 years, sits next to the Health and Coun
seling Center. Current construction plans intend to
CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
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