UNC Asheville broke ground last Thursday on what is a much-needed facility for Asheville in particular and the state in general — the North Carolina Center for Health & Wellness.

In an era where most Americans qualify as overweight or obese — and adults as well as children could be labeled junk-food-eating couch potatoes — the center, with its emphasis on health and fitness, could prove a valuable catalyst in changing the depressing status quo.

The initiative for the new center stes from the university’s fastest-growing major — its Health and Wellness Promotion degree program, with more than 100 students now enrolled.

The center, projected to cost $42 million and be completed in late 2010, will be funded largely by a $35 million appropriation from the state General Assembly.

The 133,500-square-foot facility will be built on the hill above the current Health & Fitness Center that is now occupied by the university’s tennis courts and a parking lot. The location will keep UNCA’s athletic facilities together in a compact area of the campus.

Another plus for the center is that it has incorporated into it a number of “green” design features, including a heat-recovery wheel to reduce heating and cooling costs, low-energy lighting fixtures with occupancy sensors, a rainwater cistern to supply a future irrigation system for athletic fields and drought-tolerant indigenous landscaping.

These environmentally friendly features will serve a real need in making the most efficient use of resources, and hopefully inspire other individuals and businesses to follow suit.

The center will include classrooms, research and teaching labs, cardiovascular and strength-training rooms, studios for dance, aerobics, yoga and other physical-activity courses, a wellness café and teaching kitchen and incubator space for wellness-related community enterprises.

Its largest feature will be the Kimmel Arena, a multi-purpose convocation center, which will seat 4,000 people for commencement, health symposiums and national speakers — or 3,400 for intercollegiate basketball games.

Keith Ray, UNCA 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....”

And in light of the dull designs of some of the new buildings on campus, we are pleased to see that the architectural rendering of the new center (see Page 14) shows it will be an attractive addition to the bucolic campus.