Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 21, 2008 issue
Mountain Makeover: Grandfather Edition
Grandfather Mountain Top Shop To Be Torn Down; New Top Shop Built By 2009
Story by Sam Calhoun
For the first time in almost 50 years, Grandfather Mountain’s profile will be returned to its natural beauty.
Residents and visitors may argue that the view has never been affected, but if you ask drivers on Highway 105 near Linville or Grandfather’s owner Crae Morton, they will tell you that a blip of manmade rock—Grandfather Mountain’s Top Shop—has disrupted the view since 1961.
Grandfather Mountain’s Top Shop currently houses a gift shop, a wood shop, various exhibits about the mountain and a small concession stand.
This year, the Top Shop will be demolished and a new, aesthetically pleasing and more functional building will be built in its place.
In March, a temporary Top Shop—a double-wide trailer equipped with hurricane clips—will be installed in the Top Shop parking lot in preparation for the existing Top Shop, built in 1961, to be demolished in April. Excavating for the new foundation begins on May 1. Morton hopes the exterior of the new Top Shop will be completed by fall, allowing construction crews to finish the interior of the building throughout winter 2008-09. The new Top Shop will open in spring 2009, at which time the temporary Top Shop will be taken down and relocated to a site behind the scenes on Grandfather Mountain.
“The [existing] Top Shop building is functionally obsolete,” said Morton. “It suited our needs when it was the only structure on the mountain.”
In the early-1990s, Grandfather Mountain built its Nature Museum, “and we no longer needed the [Top Shop] for all the visitors’ reception as we did in the past,” said Morton.
The existing Top Shop is also falling into disrepair.
“If you get enough wind, ice and weather—as Grandfather does—it will tear a building up,” said Morton. “The wear and tear doesn’t reflect well on what we try to do up on this mountain.”
Design and Construction
Morton is using Bill Dixon and Leigh Blevins of Appalachian Architecture—the same firm that completed the Grandfather Mountain gatehouse renovation—to design the new Top Shop. Skip Greene is the contractor.
“It was important for us to choose a local architect that knows and understands Grandfather Mountain on a deeper level than would a firm that was off the mountain,” said Morton. “There is a lot of talent in the High Country and we’re fortunate to have some of that working with us. [Bill Dixon and Appalachian Architecture] already have done a major renovation to our gatehouse.
“Also, Skip Greene, the contractor, has done almost every construction and repair job on the mountain for the last three years,” said Morton. “His people are not only talented but are customer-service oriented and do an excellent job interacting with visitors. They’re like [Grandfather Mountain] staff members and you can’t put a price on that kind of service.”
The Temporary Top Shop
The temporary Top Shop will house a retail area and the mountain’s communications equipment.
“We need to be able to greet people up there still and answer their questions [while the new Top Shop is being built],” said Morton.
The temporary Top Shop is built to Florida hurricane standards, but because of the high winds that are common on Grandfather, Morton and his staff will wrap the building with two metal cables anchored in the ground “to keep it from blowing away because up there it certainly will,” said Morton.
Designing The New Top Shop
“As seen from Highway 105, the right angle [of the existing Top Shop] disrupts what would otherwise be the natural profile [of Grandfather Mountain],” said Morton. “Now we have the opportunity to make that disappear and have more mountain and less influence of man.”
Dixon and Blevins have worked on designs for the new Top Shop for 1.5 years, partnering with Grandfather Mountain to keep the new structure as green and sustainable as possible, as well as strong and able to withstand high winds and cold temperatures.
“Our goal is to walk away from this and 50 years from now it will still be intact,” said Dixon about his and Blevins’ goal for the project. “If the building could disappear, Leigh and I would be happy.”
Whereas the existing Top Shop juts out over the rocks leading up to the Mile-High Swinging Bridge, the new Top Shop follows the curvature of the rock ledge, stair-stepping its way away from the entrance to the Mile-High Swinging Bridge. The design ensures the building will be invisible from Highway 105.
The new Top Shop will be basically two usable stories tall—a third story is an elevator entrance and exit to the Mile-High Swinging Bridge—and will encompass roughly 6,500 square feet, whereas the existing Top Shop is three stories tall and 8,600 square feet.
“But we’re not losing any usable space,” said Morton, who explained that the Grandfather Mountain Fudge Shop has already moved, and other sites on the mountain will be used to store some of the items currently in storage in the existing Top Shop.
The new building will be shifted slightly east and will be 3 to 4 feet lower than the existing Top Shop.
“By shifting the building back in the parking lot and by putting the mass of it in an area that is invisible to Highway 105, hopefully there will be a more natural view of the mountain for the first time in 50 years,” said Morton.
Blevins hopes the new placement will make the existing rock stairs to the Mile-High Swinging Bridge more of a focal point.
In designing the new Top Shop, Dixon and Blevins’ goal is to meet LEED standards, making the building as sustainable as possible. The team is looking into wind and solar power to take the building off the grid in the future. Also, Dixon and Blevins are designing a roof that can withstand 150 to 200 miles per hour wind gusts and stay on the building while not creating a constant maintenance issue.
Dixon and Blevins praised Morton for taking the time to properly think through the process and set goals to make the new building as green as possible.
“Grandfather Mountain is a dream client. We love working with them,” said Dixon. “But it’s been difficult, because there was no point of reference except rocks and weather.”
New Top Shop Amenities
One of the major reasons for building a new Top Shop is accessibility, according to Morton. Grandfather Mountain’s Mile-High Swinging Bridge has always been inaccessible for people in wheelchairs because there is no elevator, and Morton is excited to change that.
“Frankly, it’s embarrassing,” said Morton, who is installing an elevator in the new Top Shop that will take visitors, handicapped or otherwise, to a paved pathway leading to the Mile-High Swinging Bridge. “When people in wheelchairs come to visit us, we have to say, ‘Sorry, you have to take the stairs.’ Thankfully, that will be no longer.”
The new elevator and pathway to the bridge will meet all ADA standards, according to Dixon.
The new Top Shop will still house a gift shop and include the same number of bathrooms, but more educational elements will be added, such as identification signs for the various flora and fauna along the new pathway to the bridge, a historical exhibit of hangliding off Grandfather Mountain and a mile-high growth chart where children can check their height one mile above sea level. Also, windows will be installed in the stairwell that will look out to the many layers of rock that comprise Grandfather Mountain, acting as an educational tool for geology.
For the new building, Morton, Appalachian Architecture and Skip Greene are working on a new high-capacity septic system that will replace the 47-year-old system currently in use.