Passage

GSA commissioned artist Albert Paley to create this monumental sculpture for the federal building in Asheville.  Paley's intent for the artwork was to make a ceremonial gateway on the plaza.  A 15-foot-tall space in the lower half of the sculpture forms an archway that invites visitors to pass beneath its free-form metal shapes, which resemble gigantic leaves.  Overall, Passage stands just over 37 feet tall.

During a 2019 lecture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., Paley described this GSA project: "The building is very austere and very geometric, and I wanted to do this line, this very staccato line [of the artwork's silhouette], to create that contrast with the building."