Abstract:
The widely acclaimed competition by
AISC/
ACSA, sponsored by
DuPont, promoted using laminated glass as a major construction material. The site is completely unrestricted except that the city must be within a certain population range. The presentation is restricted to four twenty inch by twenty inch panels.
The decision was made that the site would be located in Eugene, so it would be easy to conduct site visits. After much searching, it was decided that instead of a new construction, we would reuse a current structure. The existing structure is currently a bank and located south of the old federal courthouse park blocks. The park blocks would be host to a farmer's market, adding another dimension to the design. The opposite side of the park blocks is a newly renovated street to attract pedestrians. The east side of the building is a high vehicular traffic street with minimal accommodations for pedestrian traffic. The current structure already provides for an underground parking garage, so the parking requirements were already fulfilled.
Conceptual and schematic design:
The existing structure remained due to the underground parking garage's structural restrictions. This became a major restriction and opportunity. Without the heavy infill, the structure became surprisingly light, and enabled the contrasting laminated glass to be exceptionally accentuated. After some theoretical work on banks, a marketing stance was determined that the bank would provide a "fun yet serious banking experience." This would have to be strategically reflected in the architecture. The "fun" portion was subsequently assigned to the public portion of the building while the "serious" portion was assigned to the office and administration portion. A curved glass piece was designed to accent the entrance and to heighten the street-side scale.
Final presentation:
Limited to four 20"x20" panels in a competition style presentation, each panel contains a dramatic black and white backdrop, with the
first panel being the most imposing to create a "wow" factor for the judges flipping through the panels at a high velocity. Sketches were used to soften the feeling of the technical board to the level of the perspective panels. Form-Z was used for the 3D model, AutoCAD for the floor plans, and Photoshop to insert the renderings into the photographs of the site.
Presentation panel #1
Presentation panel #2
Presentation panel #3
Presentation panel #4
This is the first floor plan. The entrance is on the right side of the drawing, near a bank of ATMs. The heavy lineweight room is the vault with the teller desks to its north and the bank platform to its west. There is a large lobby area which has the ability to hold events that opens out toward the park blocks to the north of the building. This would provide excellent visibility for the bank, especially during Farmer's Market. The street to the east is the street with heavy vehicular traffic and the street to the south is the more pedestrian friendly street. The west side of the building is where the ramp for the parking garage is located and there is a small parking lot for the adjacent building beyond the rows of trees.
The plan on the left is the second floor plan, which contains offices for the bank's use. There is a suspended wood clad auditorium on the northwest side of the building. The third floor is essentially the same as the second floor, except it does not have the grand staircase or the auditorium. The plan on the right is the fourth floor and contains the bank's support spaces such as security, IT support, and a records vault.
A view toward the main entrance on the southwest corner of the building.
The auditorium on the north side, giving the park blocks a dynamic feature.
A view of the west side of the building.
This is the lobby, looking at the teller desk.
Shifting your gaze up from the previous perspective.
Looking down from an upper floor towards the lobby. The movers have not yet moved any of the furniture in.
One of the employees walking toward the offices from the elevator. Form-Z went a little funky here, giving us overdone backlighting, which would never happen, as that is the north face of the building.
