Regenerative Design
The Bark House manufacturing facility is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains between Asheville and Boone, NC. The majority of vendors deliver raw materials to us from within a fifty-mile radius of this facility. 100% of all our products are crafted on-site. You can watch your product being handcrafted and visit the showroom. Our expert staff is prepared to walk you through the entire process. We encourage reservations to make your visit truly unique.
Reclaimed Buildings & Beauty
The showrooms were once service stations that back up to a residential neighborhood. They were in extreme disrepair with caved-in roofs, rusted exteriors, and open trash piles.
The property integrated into an in-city-limits neighborhood, so planning included shielding neighbors visually and audibly. The land was lowered to provide natural barriers, rain runoff was contained with planned absorption and sound was minimized. The landscape around the perimeter was in keeping with indigenous materials to provide a pleasing interface for residents.
The 2.5-acre parcel had to be piecemealed together. This small space was challenged to function flexibly with changing seasonal manufacturing needs. It had to accommodate light manufacturing and protect neighbors.
Brownfield Reclamation
Buried and deteriorating gas tanks threatened the Toe River which is in view of the facility. At the time we chose to do brownfield reclamation. This was a new process for us and the cost was higher than anticipated. But our commitment to water stewardship stood firm. In total, seven gas tanks were removed from Main Street.
Community Benefit
Locating this business within the city limits of Spruce Pine meant reclaiming buildings that were in extreme disrepair. It also meant regenerating the economic landscape of a once-thriving mill town. Townspeople invited businesses to return. With regenerative goals in mind, we exceeded all of the town codes and mandates. We improved the local aesthetic while honoring cultural precedents. We were honored as residents welcomed The Bark House team as part of the community.
Operational Excellence
We believe that excellence is the responsibility of every person in our company. It’s about passion—our intense desire to always be better at our specific craft. By virtue of this dedication and our foundation as a regenerative company, The Bark House gives you a consistently superior experience. That is integrated into our products, processes, and property. This is driven by engaged interaction with stakeholders, measuring impacts on the environment and a commitment to share benefits. It is overseen by a personal mandate of the original founders and a dedicated team who shares the same aim.
Revisioning A Showroom In Virtual Space
The coronavirus pandemic resulted in businesses changing the way they interact with clients and the public. As a company we don’t sell products that we can order from anywhere; we locally-sourced every material direct and we handcraft every product we sell. This is uncommon today. The safety of our staff has always been a top focus for us as reflected in our OSHA SHARP designation. But the clarity around the importance of our manufacturing role helped us move beyond where we were to a new space.
The Bark House showroom closed and the focus became making all product information more available online. Photos have been added to Galleries. Sample Kits are now offered so that people can touch the fascinating bark materials at home. Product selection has been streamlined in easy-to-follow steps. New resources and guides have been added.
The Bark House Showroom will not re-open to the general public post-COVID-19. We will continue to increase our accessibility on-line and through customer support. We will re-visit facility tours at an appropriate time in the future.
We greatly appreciate your patience and patronage through these challenging times!