Four synthetic strategies were evaluated towards the preparation of (-)-(3R,4R)-1-benzyl-4-(benzylamino)piperidin-3-ol (1), which was constructed with control over the relative and absolute stereochemistry of the 4,3-amino alcohol moiety. The first strategy employed a novel Rh(I) catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation, while two other strategies exploited the existing stereochemistry in 2-deoxy-D-ribose, and the fourth explored both biocatalytic and classical resolution techniques as a means to impart enantioenrichment to racemic intermediates en route to targeted structure (-)-1.