The Grove Arcade, also known as the Arcade Building or the Asheville Federal Building, is a historic commercial and residential building in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

, in its downtown historic district. It was built from 1926 to 1929, and is a Tudor Revival and

Late Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style building consisting of two stacked blocks. The lower block is a rectangular slab with rounded corners; it is capped by the second block, a two-tier set-back story. The steel frame and reinforced concrete building was designed to serve as a base for an unbuilt

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

. It features a roof deck with a bronze semi-elliptical balcony, molded terra cotta pilasters, and a ziggurat-like arrangement of huge ramps to the roof deck. The building occupies a full city block and housed one of America's first indoor shopping malls. It was sold to the federal government in 1943. The building housed the National Climatic Data Center until 1995. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In 1997, the City of Asheville acquired the title to the building under the National Monument Act. The city then signed a 198-year lease with the Grove Arcade Public Market Foundation, a group founded to preserve the building's structural and historical integrity. Over the next five years, the building would be restored and reopened to the public in 2002. Today, it features shops and restaurants on the first floor, offices on the second, and residential apartments on the third through fifth floors, referred to as The Residences at Grove Arcade. E.W. Grove, developer of

Grove Park Inn The Omni Grove Park is a historical resort hotel on the western-facing slope of Sunset Mountain within the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Asheville, North Carolina. It has been visited by various presidents of the United States and many other notable ...

, wanted a "classy look to a modern palace of commercialism." The north side has winged lions without claws, a symbol of

Venice, Italy Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

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* Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina Tudor Revival architecture in North Carolina Gothic Revival architecture in North Carolina Commercial buildings completed in 1929 Buildings and structures in Asheville, North Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Buncombe County, North Carolina Historic district contributing properties in North Carolina Shopping arcades in the United States {{BuncombeCountyNC-NRHP-stub