A-B Tech’s Construction Science program is Asheville’s Green Building School. This comprehensive program offers students green building and business skills to enable them to start and run a green construction business or to enhance their current business with additional up-to-the-minute skills and technologies. A-B Tech Construction Science program comprises several departments within A-B Tech, including the construction management technology, carpentry, and cabinetmaking departments.

The Carpentry Department at A-B Tech was founded during the 1960s. Our first Department Chairman, in 1964, was John C. Woody who directed Carpentry & Cabinetmaking in the Division of Vocational-Industrial Education. The curriculum was designed to introduce a student to the fundamentals of carpentry work and the basic procedures of cabinetmaking. Students started by working with hand tools and then progressed into wood working machines found in cabinet shops. Students were also given the opportunity to review the work of other skilled tradesmen in plumbing, heating, electrical, masonry and painting and finishing through the program. Because of the growth in the population of Asheville and the surrounding counties, the program directors wanted their students to have experiences of unlimited potential.

In 1977, Leslie F. Walker became the Chairperson of Building Construction. Mr. Walker brought several new ideas to the courses and continued to take students into the field to participate in residential construction. Sometime between 1984 and 1985, A-B Tech returned the Department to its original name “Carpentry and Cabinetmaking.” This curriculum in carpentry was designed to prepare individuals with skills and knowledge of construction with wood. The curriculum introduced mathematics, blueprint reading, methods of construction and information on building materials including energy efficient construction. By the time Leslie retired in 2004, the students in the Carpentry and Cabinetmaking Department had constructed 24 homes in the Asheville community. Several of these homes were passive solar, super insulated, while others were actually introduced to wood foundation systems. Much of the construction used local and sustainable lumber products.

Kenneth F. Czarnomski is the third Department Chairperson who started in the fall semester of 2004. Within his first year, a new curriculum, Construction Management Technology, was introduced to the Department. The curriculum was designed to prepare individuals for careers in the construction management field. Such positions may include project managers, superintendants, estimators, or foremen. The technical course work grew to include safety, planning, scheduling, cost control, productivity, human relations, estimating and building codes, and to expand with inclusion of the latest green building and renewable energy technologies. Today, the Carpentry and Cabinetmaking curriculums are housed within the Department of Construction Management Technology in the Division of Engineering and Applied Technology.

The Construction Management Technology department still maintains a community tradition of introducing students to work in the field. Since 2004, an addition of at least ten live projects has been completed such as the Healthy Built Modular House, Madison County Agricultural Center, Habitat for Humanity and others. Our work has been exhibited in the parade of Solar Homes hosted by the Western North Carolina Green Council. We are also recipients of the Asheville Chapter of the American Meteorological Society Award for sound environmental stewardship.

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