Highlands Biological Station Western Carolina University 930 Horse Cove Road, Highlands, NC 28741
Facilities & infrastructure · autumn 2026
Pardon our mess
Four projects are under way across the Station this fall, from the one you cannot miss to the one that has not broken ground. All of them are funded in full by Western Carolina University.
- Projects under way
- Four
- Nature Center
- Closed 16 August – end of 2026
- Gardens & grounds
- Open throughout
- Funding
- Western Carolina University
VISITING
The Nature Center is closed until the new year. The Highlands Botanical Gardens, the trails and the rest of the grounds stay open the whole time.
Visitors to HBS this fall will notice that construction equipment, and the inevitable noise and mess that accompany it, have intruded upon our normally tranquil and verdant campus. Fortunately, they will be as fleeting as they are obtrusive.
Chalk it up to the cause of progress. We have a number of important facilities and infrastructure improvement projects in various stages of planning and implementation going on at the Station, all fully funded by our parent institution, Western Carolina University. Below, they are laid out roughly in the order you will notice them — beginning with the one nobody could miss and ending with the one that is still entirely underground.
Four projects, one campus
Select a marker on the site plan, or a project from the list, to see what is happening and how much of it you are likely to notice. Each project can be read three ways: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Schematic site plan — positions approximate, not to scale.
What a French drain actually is
Drainage is the least visible work on campus and the easiest to underestimate. This is the foundation detail from the Nature Center drawings, read from the outside in. Select a number to light up that layer.
Seven layers, one job
Keep water away from the wall, then give whatever gets past somewhere better to go. Choose a number on the drawing to read what each layer does.
What is in the drawing set
Seven sheets, issued 7 November 2025 and stamped by Terracon of Charlotte. Here is what each one covers.
Project ledger
- Project
- HBS Nature Center Structural Repairs
- SCO number
- 24-27935-01A
- Owner
- Western Carolina University — Facilities Management
- WCU project manager
- Daniel Fiskeaux
- Design & engineering
- Terracon, Charlotte, North Carolina — NC licence F-0869
- Senior architect
- Paul Bielicki, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP
- Senior engineer
- Jeff H. Poe, Jr., PE, RBEC
- General contractor
- RYSE Construction, Mills River, North Carolina
- Location
- 930 Horse Cove Road, Highlands, North Carolina 28741
- Drawings issued
- 7 November 2025
- Design wind speed
- 115 mph, exposure category B
- Ground snow load
- 20 psf
Questions we are getting
Good is the ultimate goal
Facilities and infrastructure projects such as these represent the good, the bad and the ugly all rolled into one. We are deeply grateful to leadership at Western Carolina University for recognising the importance of these projects and funding them to the collective tune of millions of dollars.
Their support does not stop at buildings. Have you noticed our two brand-new fifteen-passenger Transit vans? They will carry students in our field courses safely and comfortably to field sites near and far across the southern Appalachians, making the most of the natural laboratory and classroom of the surrounding Nantahala National Forest and beyond.
When the opportunity arises, please thank WCU leadership for their vote of confidence in HBS, helping us realise our mission: to foster research, education and conservation focused on the rich natural heritage of the southern Blue Ridge, a global biodiversity hotspot. We have no closer or better partner.
Site plan and construction sections on this page are schematic and simplified for clarity. Refer to the stamped construction documents for actual dimensions, materials and details.