Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community

Jezerinac Group is providing Structural Design services for Phase III of the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, North Carolina. The proposed expansion of the existing campus consisting of a new, 6-story Independent Living (IL) building, a 3-story, 66,000 SF Assisted Living (AL) and Community Center (CC) building, and standalone hybrid homes buildings. Interconnectivity of the campus is a design consideration, necessitating covered walkways and elevated bridges spanning between existing buildings and new construction with significant grade change over the site as a result of the mountainous region in which this project is located.

The proposed IL building consists of a ~200,000 SF post-tensioned structure with ground level parking, an elevated transfer level with arrival plaza and courtyard/terrace use, and residential use above. Vehicular loading and large planting areas results in high load considerations on the first elevated slab, requiring complex analysis and design effort to achieve a simple solution for implementation and construction. Intended to be a partial reuse of a previous iteration for consistency in design and form across the campus, this building presented challenges in normalizing column grids between residential areas above, with a largely pre-established grid and a new parking level below that requires a different rhythm in column placement.

The proposed AL and CC buildings consists of multiple different ground level spaces, each located in separate portions of the building, with distinct architectural character at each of these areas.  This consideration necessitates location-specific structural considerations, balanced with the considerations of AL residential units above to minimize transfer conditions for economy of construction.  A hybrid system of framing with a main concrete core building allows for regularity in the AL residential areas with intentionally coordinated column layouts to minimize transfer conditions, supplemented with steel-framed wings for the different amenity spaces such as a pub with elevated interior walkway through exposed truss roof framing, a woodworking shop, and an arts space.

Steel-framed pedestrian bridge structures link the expanded campus areas to existing buildings, necessitating location-specific tie-in considerations and topographic coordination with a variable elevation site across the campus.

Jezerinac Group is working with THW Design Architecture on this project, currently in the design phase.