Providing the best health care possible is job one at the new Mission Hospital North Tower in Asheville, but the $400 million-plus building that opened in October also ranks among the state’s most impressive displays of public art.
Parent Mission Health asked local artists to offer some of their work in August 2018, prompting a committee to buy 659 pieces from more than 150 painters, photgraphers, sculptors and others. That art now adorns the tower that has 220 single-occupancy rooms spread over five floors, with each floor incorporating a different core theme: earth, wood, water, metal and air.
It represents one of the state’s largest collection of commissioned art, if not the largest. The building also includes a new 94-bed emergency department, labs, operating rooms, a landing pad for the hospital’s helicopter, a chapel and many other features. Its unified approach enables Mission “to deliver the most effective care with the best possible results,” says Nancy Lindell, public and media relations manager. Brasfield & Gorrie was the general contractor for the project, which kicked off in 2015, long before HCA Healthcare’s $1.5 billion acquisition of Mission Health last February.
The tower is part of the flagship campus of Mission Health, which employs more than 12,000 people and also operates hospitals in Brevard, Franklin, Highlands, Marion and Spruce Pine.
My colleague Moira Johnson curated the accompanying slideshow of photos, taken by Aaron Hogsed and provided by Mission, that captures some of the facility’s beauty.
Photos by Aaron Hogsed
