A hybrid banking hall for the whole community. The project has a strong social, formal, and material idea. Socially, the room presents itself as a comfortable living room, with a welcoming café at the front, inviting guests to linger. Formally, the design introduces new architectural “boxes inside boxes” that sit within the restored banking hall. Materially, the design mixes fresh new colorful materials with historically accurate ones, inviting a dialogue between old and new. While most banks are closing their brick and mortar locations, the PSD Bank has transformed an obsolete Post Office into the new center of the community.

Innovation: Located inside a historic Post Office, the interior of the bank mixes ideas from hospitality design, residential, workplace, and retail design to make a generous and welcoming neighborhood center for guests of all ages. It is a hybrid space, so while work is certainly being done there, guests are invited to linger and feel at home. And while careful attention was given to the historic renovation, the space is intended to feel new and fresh and contemporary and vibrant and connected to the active life of the community. New materials live in happy dialogue with the old. And young and old alike are welcomed into their own neighborhood community center.

Functionality: In addition to traditional banking services like ATMs, consulting rooms, and help desks, there are also spaces one does not always see in a bank - a café, a community living room, an interior garden, exhibition spaces, and public meeting rooms. Of course there are digital kiosks for quick automated service; but there are also people to help guests who may actually need to talk to an actual person. Special attention has been given to integrate after-hours access to ATMs within the same room.

Creativity: Formally, new architectural “boxes inside boxes” sit within the restored banking hall to allow old and new components to have a substantive dialogue. For example, a mirrored volume hides safety deposit boxes in plain sight; it reflects the historic space and disappears at the same time. Wooden volumes contain consultancy spaces and, by grouping them, they structure the open space. Materially, the design mixes fresh new materials with historic ones – warm woods, shiny metals, pickled woods, terrazzo with recycled content, bright colors - mixed with historic stone flooring, original dark wood columns, and historically accurate colors found under a hundred years of paint layers.

Sustainability: As a bank dedicated to the community where it is located, the design features local material manufacturers, furniture companies, suppliers, and crafts. The design reuses and recycles as much as possible – the historic shell was restored - the flooring, the original wood-panelled columns, the plaster ceilings - and new materials featured recycled content as much as possible – terrazzo, salted woods, carpets made from discarded material, natural fabrics.