From Staff Reports

Audiences will be sparse at shows over the next few months at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville as HVAC issues are prompting the venue to shift to running at around half capacity, Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) reported on June 26.

To that end, News 13 noted, “One of their (TWA’s) event clients, the Asheville Symphony, has already temporarily decided to hit the road.” (See story to the right for details on the symphony’s plans )

With 2,431 total seats, TWA General Manager Chris Corl expects this fall to only be able to have 1,000 seats available. This is due to one of their main HVAC units going down at the end of May, News 13 noted.

The Daily Planet called Corl for an update — beyond News 13’s repot — on the ramifications of the TWA’s HCAC problems early in the afternoon of June 29, but did not hear back from him by the newspaper’s mid-morning June 30 press deadline.

Meanwhile, News 13 reported that Corl said that with the HVAC system being a 52-year-old unit, repairs are going to be challenging.

The TV station noted that Corl said parts for the TWA’s aging HVAC system have to be fabricated — and safety aspects upgraded, just to get to the unit. 

“He explained how it's very time consuming to fix and could take anywhere from six to nine months to fully repair,” News 13 reported.

“While Corl said this has happened before, he said that it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when they weren’t having events, so it was an easier process to fix.

“They began working to figure out repairs through the month of June and have been meeting with their event clients to figure out what the future looks like.”

News 13 quoted Corl as saying, “It (the HVAC system) affects both our heating and cooling, so moving forward, we’re actively working with each individual event to determine if we can have the event or not, depending on the crowd type, crowd size.”

The TV station’s report added, “He explained that the time of year of the event is very important, as they’re trying to keep as many events as they can, but realistically this fall, they’re looking at a maximum capacity of 1,000 people per event.

“It's presenting a large financial burden, as Corl said that they will certainly lose events this fall and winter, and they’ve already had to unfortunately turn away business,” including the Asheville Symphony.