Quote:
Originally Posted by Murphy de la Sucre
I heard a new building tower was built in downtown area to refresh the skyline, but I never expected such a modern high-rise condo building, what a misfit.
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Well, it started out as an international-style office tower of brown metal and black glass. Now it's a hotel and condo tower with some restaurants and shopping at the base...
...And I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it a misfit. They tried, and with a fair amount of success, to add some Art Deco styling to the building, and the materials they used were good. It's far from the most offensive recladding I've seen. Probably could have been better, sure, but the end result is actually quite nice.
The bigger problem with it, mind you, is the way that building is now a literal physical monument to the sort of gentrification and relentless accommodation of rich tourists and richer second homeowners that has pretty much killed off Asheville's soul by this point. Anyone, like me, who has lived here since the 90's and before, fondly remembers how Asheville used to be weird, sinister, and grubby -- the kind of place where, if magic was real, it would be real here. That's gone now. Thad and Bootsie ordered their servants to clean it all up.