Hyde Park Bank Building
Chicago
Florian Architects

Florian Architects transforms a grand banking hall through a dramatic play of modernist and classical vocabularies

© Karant Associates

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At a time when banal little bank branches are spreading across the land like kudzu, the renovation of a grand banking hall is something to celebrate. This is more the case when it is carried out with the precision and panache that Paul Florian, AIA, of Florian Architects brought to Chicago’s Hyde Park Bank.

The $3.5 million, 10,000-square-foot project, winner of a 2005 AIA Honor Award for Interior Architecture, was as much a transformation as a renovation. Its rigorous hierarchy of space-defining volumes, translucent planes, and subtle lighting stylishly transports the neighborhood institution into the 21st century, sensitively juxtaposing interactive contemporary features with the gloriously opulent shell of the restored banking hall.

Florian eschewed a radical intervention, opting instead to complement rather than obscure the bank’s Classical past. The approach emanated from the desire to adapt the hall to modern banking practices, which stress welcoming, nonintimidating environments. The idea, as Florian said, was to create an uplifting interior, but not one that would require customers to “come in with a three-piece suit.”

Florian’s design works in two seemingly contradictory yet ultimately complementary ways. One unifies the space; the other divides it or, more accurately, shapes it to a new standard of precision in line with today’s banking practices.

Contemporary sconces and lamps in restored chandeliers reflect indirect light off the regilded ceiling, creating the impression of a single, uninterrupted volume. Work areas, workstation files, and waiting areas are concealed or shifted to the margins of the hall, freeing it of visual clutter.

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Formal name of Project:
Hyde Park Bank Building

Location:
Chicago

Gross square footage:
13,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$3.5 million

Owner:
Hyde Park Bank & Trust Co.
Timothy O. Goodsell, President

Architect:
Florian Architects
432 N. Clark St., Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60610
PH: 312.670.2220
FX: 312.670.2221
www.florianarchitects.com