Building commercially in Asheville, NC is not like building anywhere else in the Southeast. The terrain is steep, the regulatory environment is layered, the historic districts are actively enforced, and Tropical Storm Helene in September 2024 reset expectations around what resilient design actually means in Western North Carolina. Add an active rewrite of the city’s Unified Development Ordinance and you have a market where local knowledge is not a soft advantage — it’s a practical necessity.
Form & Function Architecture has been designing commercial buildings across Asheville and the broader WNC region since 2010. The studio’s portfolio spans six commercial building types: offices, retail spaces, healthcare and medical office buildings, industrial and warehouse facilities, restaurants and breweries, and mixed-use developments. This page covers what each type involves, what makes commercial architecture in this region distinct, and how the regulatory environment shapes every project from the first site visit through ribbon cutting.
Tropical Storm Helene made landfall on September 27, 2024, and the flooding it caused in Asheville and across Buncombe County permanently changed how commercial buildings need to be designed here. In parts of the city, the French Broad River crested more than 24 feet above typical levels, breaking the flood of record set in 1916. The City of Asheville absorbed an estimated $1 billion in damage to City-owned property and assets. Local businesses are projected to have lost $585 million in visitor spending in Q1 2025 alone.
The design implications are concrete. Mechanical and electrical equipment on commercial sites is now typically required to sit 2–3 feet above the 100-year floodplain — a “freeboard” requirement that changes how building systems are laid out and where they go on a site. Projects on grades above 35% slope or elevations above 2,500 feet now require multi-phase geotechnical certifications before permits can advance. These are not optional considerations. Any architect — local or otherwise — designing commercial work in Asheville needs to know them before the first schematic is drawn.
Asheville’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted 5–0 on January 22, 2025, to approve a set of amendments to the city’s Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), with a City Council hearing following on February 11, 2025. The changes matter to commercial clients for three reasons.
First, minimum off-street parking requirements were eliminated along transit-supportive corridors. For office and mixed-use projects in particular, this removes a constraint that previously forced buildings to dedicate expensive square footage to cars rather than program.
Second, the amendments raised the threshold for administrative review — more projects now move through a staff-level Level II process, cutting 3–6 months off pre-construction timelines for qualifying commercial work.
Third, by-right conversion of non-conforming structures into commercial and mixed-use uses is now allowed without a Board of Adjustment variance. That means a warehouse, garage, or older commercial shell can be repositioned without the cost and timeline risk of a variance hearing.
For developers and business owners planning commercial projects in Asheville in 2025 and 2026, these changes open real options that did not exist before.
Asheville’s commercial real estate market is defined by tenant fit-outs and adaptive reuse rather than ground-up speculative construction. The largest recent new office completion in the MSA — 76 Glendale Avenue — came in at 12,930 square feet, which signals the scale of what the market produces. Nearly 3,000 apartment units were in the construction pipeline in the Asheville MSA as of mid-2024 (NAI Beverly-Hanks Q2 2024 Market Report), with much of that supply arriving in mixed-use buildings that pair residential with ground-floor commercial. The Asheville MSA employed approximately 12,500 people in construction and related trades as of December 2023 (Bureau of Labor Statistics/AGC of America), placing it fifth among North Carolina metros behind Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro-High Point, and Winston-Salem.
Office architecture in Asheville today is largely a story of adaptive reuse, historic renovation, and tenant fit-out rather than ground-up construction. The city’s office stock skews toward Class B buildings in historic structures, with a handful of newer mixed-use developments adding leasable commercial footage along corridors like Merrimon Avenue, Haywood Road, and Biltmore Avenue.
The design challenges for office projects in Asheville, NC are real. Many buildings that look like ideal office candidates are either in Local Historic Districts — triggering Historic Resources Commission review for any exterior changes — or in the Downtown Design Review Overlay, which adds a separate layer of architectural review. Parking minimums along transit corridors were eliminated in the 2025 UDO amendments, but non-corridor sites still require parking analysis during Technical Review Committee (TRC) review.
Workplace design itself has also shifted fundamentally. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025, employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024, matching COVID-era lows. A Stanford University randomized controlled trial (Nicholas Bloom, 2024, n=1,600+) found that hybrid workers showed no drop in productivity but had 33% lower resignation rates. Gensler’s global workplace research found that only one in three office workers reported their environment had been remodeled in the past three years — meaning most existing office stock is already functionally misaligned with how people work.
Good office architecture in 2026 designs for the days people actually come in: it prioritizes collaboration space, acoustic privacy for hybrid meetings, natural light, and spaces that give people a reason to make the commute. A local Asheville commercial architect can assess existing building conditions, navigate the TRC and any historic review, coordinate structural and MEP upgrades, and produce permit-ready construction documents in Revit — the full scope from first site visit through occupancy.
Retail architecture in Asheville is shaped by three corridors: Downtown and the Central Business District, Haywood Road in West Asheville, and Biltmore Village. Each carries different regulatory requirements and a different tenant mix. Downtown sits within the CBD/Downtown Design Review Overlay and, in many blocks, within Local Historic Districts enforced by the Historic Resources Commission. Haywood Road is a transit-supportive corridor where the 2025 parking amendments apply. Biltmore Village has its own Local Historic District with design standards that govern storefront materials, signage, and fenestration.
For retail clients, this means that the architectural scope extends well beyond interior build-out. A retail architecture firm in Asheville coordinates storefront design, signage compliance under UDO Article XIII, ADA accessible routes from the public right-of-way through the space, customer circulation flow, lighting design for merchandise, and — when applicable — a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Resources Commission before any visible exterior work begins.
The business case for quality retail design is well-documented. Wharton School research found that customers who visit experiential retail stores increase their monthly spending by 30% compared to standard transactional environments. Eighty percent of customers report that the in-store experience is as important as the product itself (NetChoice, 2026). The shift toward experiential retail — spaces that give customers a reason to come in rather than ordering online — puts architectural quality at the center of retail performance, not at the edges of it.
Medical office is the most heavily regulated commercial building type an architecture firm works in. The gap between a standard Group B office and a medical office building is not cosmetic — it runs through every building system.
Ventilation is the largest single delta. ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170 (Ventilation for Health Care Facilities) sets minimum air changes per hour (ACH) by room type. Standard exam rooms require a minimum of 6 ACH with a meaningful outside-air component. Airborne infection isolation rooms require 12 or more ACH under negative pressure, all-exhaust (no recirculation), and self-closing doors. A published study in PubMed Central (PMC8052498) that assessed outpatient clinic ventilation found that 83% of clinic rooms failed ACH minimums for higher-acuity room classifications — not because the equipment wasn’t installed, but because it wasn’t designed correctly. An architect with ASHRAE 170 fluency and MEP coordination experience is not optional on a medical office project.
Plumbing requirements include a hand-washing sink in every exam room, eyewash stations in lab areas, and medical gas piping where oxygen, vacuum, or nitrous oxide is needed. Electrical systems require hospital-grade outlets, NFPA 99 essential electrical system design, and backup generator coverage. Flooring needs to be seamless sheet vinyl with integral coved base for infection control. Acoustic privacy at check-in — sound-masking systems, setbacks from reception counters — is not a luxury feature; it’s what enables HIPAA compliance by design.
Form & Function has direct experience with healthcare facility design in Western NC, including the Appalachian Mountain Community Health Center at Dale Fell and Cornerstone Physical Therapy. The Asheville/WNC market is anchored by Mission Health (acquired by HCA Healthcare in 2019), and the urgent care segment has grown steadily across Buncombe, Henderson, and Madison counties. Projects like Range Urgent Care — which Form & Function designed across Asheville and Black Mountain — represent the kind of high-velocity, code-intensive project that requires a firm that has done it before.
Western North Carolina’s industrial market is smaller in scale than the I-26 mega-corridor that runs through Charleston and Ridgeville, SC — which holds approximately 26 million square feet of industrial space — but demand for light industrial, flex space, and food-and-beverage manufacturing in Buncombe and Henderson counties is real and growing. The county’s 2043 Comprehensive Plan explicitly supports continued industrial growth.
Industrial architecture in WNC carries site-specific constraints that general contractors routinely underestimate. Asheville’s steep slope rules — triggered at grades above 35% or elevations above 2,500 feet — require multi-phase geotechnical certifications that affect site selection, grading design, retaining wall engineering, and stormwater management. Post-Helene resilience requirements for MEP equipment elevation affect where utilities enter and how buildings are serviced. A commercial architect in Asheville who has worked through these constraints before is worth the engagement fee before a shovel touches the ground.
The design conversation for industrial buildings in 2025 has also expanded to include energy performance. Warehouse and distribution buildings are among the best candidates for rooftop photovoltaic systems — large, flat, unobstructed roof planes with no competition from HVAC equipment for surface area. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ first and only net-zero energy warehouse — a 25,000-square-foot facility designed by SSOE Group for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on the NIH campus — achieved LEED Platinum certification and projected savings of approximately 157,000 kWh per year, or roughly $12,381 annually (SSOE Group project documentation). High-performance envelopes, LED high-bay lighting with daylight harvesting, and EV truck charging infrastructure are now standard conversations on new industrial projects in this region.
Form & Function’s industrial and light manufacturing portfolio includes Hi-Tech Integrated Systems and STF Precision — both projects that required the firm to navigate WNC’s site conditions alongside detailed code analysis for manufacturing occupancies under the North Carolina Building Code.
Asheville has one of the highest brewery-per-capita counts of any city in the United States, and its restaurant and hospitality architecture reflects that identity. The building stock that defines this scene — former warehouses along the River Arts District, industrial spaces on Sweeten Creek, older commercial shells on Haywood Road — is the raw material that good hospitality architecture works with.
Form & Function has designed more Asheville food and beverage spaces than any other local architecture firm. The portfolio includes Smoky Park Supper Club, Mellow Mushroom, Nine Mile, Hillman Brewery, Outsider Brewing, and UpCountry Brewing Company, among others. That depth of experience means the firm knows the regulatory path — and the design opportunities — in this building type as well as anyone in WNC.
The regulatory stack for a restaurant or brewery is substantial. An establishment with 50 or more occupants is classified as Assembly Group A-2 under the NC Building Code, which triggers egress, sprinkler, and structural requirements that do not apply to smaller food service operations. A brewery that combines a production facility with a public taproom typically requires a 2-hour fire-rated wall separating the F-2 manufacturing area from the A-2 assembly space. Commercial kitchen ventilation must comply with the NC Mechanical Code — Type I hoods over grease-producing equipment, Type II over steam and heat — and the NC Department of Health and Human Services requires plan review and a pre-operational inspection before a food establishment permit is issued (15A NCAC 18A .2600).
Brewery design carries additional complexity. Per the AIA Trust Guide to Brewery Design, water-to-beer ratios run roughly 3.5:1, which means utility sizing, grease interceptor sizing, and floor drain design all work at multiples of what a restaurant of similar square footage would require. Combustible dust from grain handling and slip hazards from wet floors are real safety considerations that inform the architecture. And future capacity matters: the best brewery designs install conduit, floor drains, and equipment pads for Phase 2 operations at the time of initial construction, avoiding the cost of trenching and patching later.
The defining feature of Hillman Brewery — large glass-paneled garage doors that dissolve the boundary between the taproom and the outdoor space — is a design decision, not an accident. That indoor-outdoor connection is what makes the space work at the scale of both an intimate weeknight visit and a packed Saturday afternoon. Good hospitality architecture makes those two experiences feel equally intentional.
Mixed-use development in Asheville is getting easier to build — and harder to get wrong. The 2025 UDO amendments created direct incentives for mixed-use by allowing increased building size in commercial zones when projects include housing. On transit-supportive corridors, the elimination of parking minimums removes the most common single obstacle to making mixed-use projects pencil out financially.
The design complexity, however, is significant. Acoustic separation between residential and commercial occupancies requires STC 50 / IIC 45 assembly performance — typically achieved through gypsum ceilings with resilient channels, mineral wool insulation, and concrete topping slabs — which adds cost and requires careful coordination between the structural and architectural scopes. Separate vertical circulation cores, differentiated MEP risers, and fire-rated separation between residential (Group R-2) and assembly or mercantile occupancies (Group A or M) per IBC Section 508 all need to be resolved in the design development phase, not discovered during construction.
Mixed-use projects in Asheville are concentrated in the Urban Place (UP), Urban Village (UV), Central Business District (CBD), and Commercial Industrial (CI) zones. Active corridors include South Slope, West Asheville’s Haywood Road, the River Arts District (RAD), and Biltmore Village. Form & Function’s Farmside Village project in Alexander and the Kasa Downtown Asheville project both represent the studio’s ability to work across the residential-commercial boundary at different scales and in different regulatory contexts.
North Carolina adopts the International Building Code (IBC) as the basis for the NC State Building Code. The 2024 edition, based on the 2021 IBC, governs occupancy classification under Chapter 3. Commercial projects in Asheville typically fall into one of the following occupancy groups:
Mixed-use buildings must comply with IBC Section 508, which governs separated occupancies, non-separated occupancies, and accessory occupancies. Getting that analysis wrong in the design phase creates expensive corrections during permit review or, worse, during construction.
A change of occupancy — converting a retail space (Group M) into a restaurant (Group A-2), for example — triggers full compliance with the current code for the new use. That often adds 2–8 weeks to the permit timeline and can require significant structural, fire, and egress upgrades that were not part of the original project budget. Understanding occupancy classification is one of the most concrete things an architect brings to a commercial project.
Commercial projects in Asheville move through one of three review tiers depending on size, use, and location.
Level I is administrative review for minor projects that meet all UDO standards without discretionary approvals.
Level II is Technical Review Committee (TRC) review for most commercial projects in the Commercial Industrial (CI), Light Industrial (LI), Industrial (IND), Riverside (RIV), Urban Residential (UR), Urban Village (UV), Urban Place (UP), Airport (ARPT), and other designated zones. The TRC coordinates input from Planning, Engineering, Transportation, Fire, Utilities, and Building Safety in a single meeting cycle.
Level III involves City Council approval for the largest projects in the Central Business District within the Downtown Design Review Overlay (CBD/DDR). Projects in the CBD/DDR that exceed size thresholds or involve significant departures from UDO standards also go before the Asheville Design Review Committee, a nine-member joint body of the Downtown Commission and the Asheville-Buncombe Riverfront Commission.
Projects in Local Historic Districts — which include Downtown, Montford, Biltmore Village, and portions of other neighborhoods — are subject to review by the Historic Resources Commission. Any exterior change to a contributing structure requires a Certificate of Appropriateness before a building permit is issued. The City of Asheville’s Historic Districts and Design Standards are the governing document for that process.
North Carolina regulates the practice of architecture under NC General Statutes Chapter 83A. Individual architect licenses must be renewed annually by July 1. Architecture firm licenses must be renewed annually by December 31. Firm registration requires a $75 application fee through the NC Secretary of State.
Out-of-state firms that want to practice in North Carolina must obtain a Certificate of Authority from the NC Secretary of State and ensure that at least one officer, director, or shareholder holds a current NC architecture license. A designated NC-licensed architect must be in “responsible control” of all work produced for NC projects. Two-thirds of issued shares in an NC architecture firm must be owned by licensed architects or engineers (21 NCAC 02 .0215).
This is worth understanding before signing a contract with any architecture firm for a project in Asheville. You can verify any architect’s current NC license status directly at ncbarch.org. Form & Function Architecture is fully registered and licensed to practice commercial architecture in both North Carolina and South Carolina.
All commercial buildings must comply with the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. For most commercial project types, this means accessible routes from parking to entry, compliant restrooms, accessible counters and service areas, and — for multi-story buildings — accessible vertical circulation. Medical office buildings carry additional accessibility requirements under the FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities, including specific turning radii around exam tables and clearances at accessible toilet rooms that exceed standard ADA minimums. The City of Asheville added 45 ADA-compliant sidewalk ramps to the public right-of-way in 2024 as part of its ongoing compliance program, and it expects commercial developments to maintain continuity with those improvements.
The North Carolina Energy Conservation Code (NCECC) establishes minimum energy performance requirements for all new commercial construction and substantial renovation. Beyond code compliance, Form & Function designs toward higher performance through passive strategies — building orientation for solar gain and natural ventilation, high-performance envelopes, daylighting — as well as active systems including LED lighting with occupancy and daylight controls, high-efficiency mechanical systems, and where appropriate, on-site renewable energy.
Western NC’s mountain terrain creates both challenges and opportunities for sustainable commercial design. South-facing orientations for solar access are often competing with views, site constraints, and neighboring structures. Steep slopes require careful grading and stormwater management. But the same elevation that makes a mountain site complicated also puts it above the urban heat island, giving commercial buildings access to cooler outdoor air temperatures and reduced cooling loads for more of the year.
Post-Helene, sustainability in Asheville commercial design increasingly overlaps with resilience. Buildings designed with elevated mechanical and electrical systems, flood-resistant materials at grade, and restored natural drainage features — like the planted wetland buffer at New Belgium’s River Arts District brewery, which is credited with limiting flood damage in September 2024 — perform better during weather events and cost less to recover afterward.
Every commercial project at Form & Function follows the six-phase AIA process, adapted to the specific conditions of Asheville and WNC.
01. Personalized Site Visit and Analysis. The team comes to your site — existing building, undeveloped lot, or planned location — to assess how the space works, what constraints it carries, and what opportunities it presents. Site orientation, topography, views, solar access, and flood/slope considerations are all evaluated at this stage. Budget, program, and timeline are discussed directly and honestly.
02. Schematic Design. The team reviews applicable code, zoning requirements, and development feasibility. Early design concepts position the building for views, daylighting, and minimal land disturbance. Contractors and planning staff are consulted informally at this stage to align design direction with realistic cost and regulatory expectations.
03. Construction Documents. Using Revit (BIM-based), the team produces full plans, elevations, sections, and details coordinated with structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineers. Documents are prepared to permit-ready standard.
04. Permitting. The team manages submission to the Asheville Permit Application Center (161 S. Charlotte Street), responds to TRC comments, and coordinates any Historic Resources Commission or Design Review Committee presentations required for the project.
05. Bidding and Contractor Selection. The team manages the bid process to help clients receive clear, comparable pricing from qualified contractors. Bid documents, scope clarifications, and contractor evaluation are all part of this phase.
06. Construction Oversight and Administration. Frequent site visits, RFI responses, shop drawing review, and system commissioning through project close-out ensure that what gets built matches what was designed.
For most commercial building projects in North Carolina, yes. NC G.S. Chapter 83A requires that construction documents for commercial buildings be prepared by or under the responsible control of a licensed NC architect. The threshold for when a license is required depends on the project type, size, and use — your architect can confirm whether your specific project falls under the requirement. Projects that skip this step typically encounter permit rejections and delays that cost more to resolve than the architecture fee would have been.
Standard commercial permits in Asheville typically take 6–12 weeks from submission to approval for projects that don’t require discretionary review. Projects that involve a change of occupancy, historic district review, or Downtown Design Review Committee input typically add 2–8 weeks. Level III projects requiring City Council approval operate on the Council’s meeting calendar, which can add several months. The 2025 UDO amendments raised administrative thresholds, which means more projects now qualify for faster staff-level review — ask your architect whether your project qualifies.
A change of occupancy — converting a space from one IBC occupancy group to another, such as from retail (Group M) to a restaurant (Group A-2) — triggers code compliance review for the new use. That often means egress upgrades, sprinkler system changes, structural review, and restroom count recalculations. A change of use within the same occupancy group — for example, one Group B office tenant replacing another — typically does not trigger the same level of code review. The distinction has significant budget implications, and it’s worth confirming with your architect before signing a lease or purchasing a property.
You can, but the out-of-state firm must hold a current NC architecture firm license and designate a NC-licensed architect in responsible control of the project (21 NCAC 02 .0215). Beyond the legal requirement, out-of-state firms typically lack direct familiarity with Asheville’s TRC process, the Historic Resources Commission’s preferences and meeting schedule, post-Helene resilience requirements, and the specific geotechnical conditions that affect commercial sites in Buncombe County. That unfamiliarity has a real cost in time and revision cycles.
Adaptive reuse means converting an existing building from one use to another — a warehouse into a restaurant, a big-box retail shell into a medical office, a historic commercial building into a hospitality venue. Asheville’s 2025 UDO amendments made adaptive reuse of non-conforming commercial structures more accessible by allowing by-right conversions without a variance in many situations. The design challenges are real — existing structure, slab conditions, utility capacity, and envelope performance all have to be evaluated — but adaptive reuse is often faster and less expensive than ground-up construction and carries genuine sustainability benefits from preserved embodied carbon.
Properties in Local Historic Districts — including Downtown, Montford, and Biltmore Village — require a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Resources Commission before any exterior change can be made. The HRC reviews materials, window and door designs, signage, additions, and demolitions against the City’s Historic Districts and Design Standards. Work that is not visible from a public right-of-way is generally not subject to HRC review. Interior work, unless it removes character-defining features, typically does not require HRC approval. National Register listing alone does not trigger local design review — that is only triggered by a Local Historic District designation.
Start with license verification: confirm the firm holds a current NC architecture firm registration and that the lead architect holds an active NC individual license (verifiable at ncbarch.org). Ask for a portfolio of completed projects in your building type — office, retail, medical, brewery, whatever is relevant — and specifically in Asheville or WNC. Ask whether the firm has direct experience with TRC submissions, HRC review, or Downtown Design Review Committee presentations. Ask how they coordinate with structural and MEP engineers. And ask what their construction administration process looks like — the answer will tell you a lot about whether they see their job as ending at permit issuance or at certificate of occupancy.
Asheville’s commercial architecture market in 2025 and 2026 rewards firms that know the local terrain — literally and figuratively. The post-Helene resilience requirements, the UDO rewrite, the layered historic district review process, and WNC’s genuinely difficult site conditions all add complexity that generic process cannot absorb. Form & Function has been navigating that complexity for over a decade, across restaurant and brewery design, medical office work, retail fit-outs, office renovations, industrial projects, and mixed-use development throughout Western North Carolina and Upstate South Carolina.
If you have a commercial project in the region, the best first step is a site visit. Contact Form & Function Architecture at 828.575.2423 or info@ffarchitecture.com, or stop by the studio at 9 Walnut Street, Suite 3B in downtown Asheville.
