UNC Asheville held a celebratory groundbreaking ceremony recently for the North Carolina Center for Health & Wellness, which will be the new home for a unique academic and outreach initiative that is helping to address the state's most pressing health concerns.

Construction of the center, projected to cost $42 million, is funded in large part by the $35-million appropriation from the North Carolina General Assembly.

North Carolina House Speaker Joe Hackney, who spoke at the ceremony, said he has great hopes for long-term benefits of the Center's work on the health of all North Carolina citizens.

"This project represents not only good vision on this campus but good vision across the University system and good vision on the part of the North Carolina General Assembly," Hackney said.

The N.C. Center for Health & Wellness will combine teaching, research and community collaborations to focus initially on three statewide health issues: childhood obesity, workplace wellness and senior wellness. The initiative is built around UNC Asheville's Health and Wellness Promotion degree program, now in its third academic year. It is the fastest growing major at the University, with more than 100 students.

Keith Ray, UNC Asheville Health and Wellness Department Chair and Associate Professor, said that 15 years ago experts felt America wasn't yet hurting enough to focus on preventative care.

"In 2008 we are starting to hurt enough � economically, physically, emotionally. And healthy living in America still remains the difficult choice," Ray said. "We intend to work with the community to make healthy living the easy choice � the easy choice for children, the easy choice for employees in the workplace, and the easy choice for older adults.

"Working together we will build a national model that enhances student learning, strengthens the economy and improves the health and wellbeing of the community. Ultimately, we must work together to create a wellness culture in North Carolina and in America. As North Carolina's public liberal arts university, UNC Asheville stands ready to accept the challenge," Ray said.

The 133,500-square-foot N.C. Center for Health and Wellness will be located in the heart of UNC Asheville's campus. It will contain classrooms, research and teaching labs; cardiovascular and strength training rooms; offices, meeting rooms and seminar space; studios for dance, aerobics, yoga and other physical activity courses; a wellness caf� and teaching kitchen; and incubator space for wellness-related community enterprises.

The building's sustainable design features include a heat recovery wheel to reduce heating and cooling costs, low-energy lighting fixtures with occupancy sensors, rainwater cistern to supply a future irrigation system for athletic fields, no-touch restroom faucets to reduce water usage, and drought-tolerant, indigenous landscaping.

The facility will also include a multipurpose convocation center, the Kimmel Arena, which will have seating for 4,000 for commencement, health symposiums and national speakers, and seating for 3,400 for intercollegiate basketball. The arena provides the campus' first venue that can hold all of the UNC Asheville's students

UNC Asheville is raising $7 million in private funds for programming, equipment, and non-health-and-wellness-related spaces. Fundraising to date totals nearly $5 million. Architects for the project are Bowers Ellis & Watson of Asheville and HOK, an international firm that specializes in public assembly architecture. The projected completion date is late 2010.

Although construction of the center is just starting, the center's work is well under way. Students and faculty from 11 different disciplines are already engaged in health-and-wellness research, internships and service-learning. Projects have ranged from Wellness Activities for Seniors (WASA) to Getting Into Fitness Together (GIFT) for families and children. Research has included testing a model of workplace wellness for Biltmore Estate employees and an examination of parental involvement in promoting healthy behavior among children attending Asheville elementary schools.

UNC Asheville is also actively engaged in collaborative planning with Mission Hospitals, The Center for Health and Aging Initiative (MAHEC, A-B Tech and Western Carolina University), Asheville/Buncombe Institute of Parity Achievement, the Buncombe County Health Center, Health Partners, local schools, the Healthy Buncombe Coalition and Obesity Action Team, the Workplace Wellness Council of Western North Carolina, Cliffs Communities and Zest Quest Childhood Wellness Program, and the YMCA's Activate America Initiative.

For more information, click on www.unca.edu/ncwell.

(Image provided by UNCA.)

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