Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank’s branch in Newbury, which the institution has dubbed “The Bank on the Green,” is designed to blend in with its downtown suburban setting.
Gone are the days where bank branches look institutional and have a sanitized appearance. In today’s marketplace, banks are striving to make customers feel welcome and others are even going as far as creating a “living room” feel, complete with fireplaces. Design teams say banks are trying harder to make their branches feel welcoming, while still functioning as a sound business environment.
Financial institutions like The Provident Bank in Amesbury have looked to Portsmouth, N.H.-based TMS Architects to help design elements of the bank that customers can see.
“You are dealing with products you can’t touch or feel,” Steve Jones, senior vice president for retail banking at The Provident, said.
He added that the location and the “feel” of the bank are important.
“[TMS Architects] gives our branch a human personality,” said Jones. “We need to establish an emotional link with the customer.”
The Provident Bank has built four branches in the last three years and each time it has tried to create a “distinctive style.” This style involves seamlessly integrating the branch into the communities where they are located.
Bill Soupcoff, principal of TMS Architects, said community banks no longer want to look like they are housed in sterile office buildings.
“They try to fit into the neighborhood that [they are] in,” Soupcoff said.
Rather than building a branch in “big boxes,” Soupcoff said many modern bank branches have dormers, bay windows and arbors. Many branches incorporate natural woodwork and fireplaces, as well.
“We’ve worked primarily with two banks closely integrated in the communities,” Soupcoff said.
These community banks, he said, are taking advantage of the weaknesses of larger banks that focus on consistent branding but often lack the flexibility to mesh well with the unique character of the many cities and towns in which they are located.
“Larger banks have a difficult time relating to individual communities,” said Soupcoff.
Instead of a corporate character, community banks want to develop a personalized design.
Jones said The Provident Bank has spent a lot of time designing lighting within its branches. A bright, airy feel with few shadows is common. The walls in one branch are painted yellow to create a brighter environment, as well.
“We have not been afraid to use color,” Soupcoff said.
While Jones is familiar with exactly what goes into giving a branch a certain appearance, he said it is more important that the customers have a positive response. Many times he’ll hear clients say a certain branch has “a good personality.”
In one of the first branches designed with TMS in the last three years, Jones said the teller line had a zigzag design.
“Customers at the teller [window] aren’t standing next to each other,” Jones said, which creates a sense of personal space and privacy.
Innovative design isn’t always perfect right from the start, though. The zigzag angles were deemed too severe in practice, however, and the design was modified to lessen the angle in branches built subsequently, Jones said.
‘Destination’ Design
Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank also works with TMS and has worked hard to integrate itself into the communities in which it has branches.
Richard Eaton, president of the bank, said when a new branch was built four years ago in Newburyport, the design was intended to recreate the look of an American bungalow, the style of the home that originally sat at the location. The architecture even includes an outdoor porch.
In order to better reflect the character of Amesbury, where the bank is building another branch, Newburyport Five is revamping a 40-year-old mill building. Marc MacBurnie, senior vice president, said the branch design brightens up the downtown area. The branch is expected to open next summer.
The bank has been careful to blend in with its surroundings. TMS took the old mill building and opened it up with arched windows and skylights. Soupcoff also suggested adding a second floor to the structure, which will house a community room.
“It will look right over the falls in the mill yard,” said MacBurnie.
MacBurnie said that having a community bank that takes pains to fit into the community it serves is a strong draw for potential customers.
“No matter what you build, you only get one chance to make a first impression,” said MacBurnie.
MacBurnie said there has been a trend toward area banks using Cape Cod-style home design with dormers and extensive landscaping. He said people in Massachusetts can easily relate to the look of such a branch.
“We live in New England, [where] everyone likes the Cape Cod style of things,” MacBurnie said.
While care was taken to make the interior of the Amesbury branch inviting, Soupcoff said the exterior layout is just as important. When designing a branch, he is careful to place a building so it is very visible to customers. However, he doesn’t like the idea of placing a large parking lot in the front of the structure.
“[We may] break it into five- or six-car parking areas,” he said.
The site also may be divided with landscaping or a stone wall to create a more residential and less institutional feel.
“We try to subjugate the car and focus on the pedestrian,” Soupcoff said.
It isn’t always easy to ignore vehicular traffic coming into a branch, however.
“One of the biggest challenges is the automobile,” Soupcoff said.
Modern bank branches are dependent on drive-through tellers. Most banks have three or four drive-through teller lines. Soupcoff said trying to incorporate a three-car drive-through while shooting for residential appearance at a branch can be difficult.
“That’s probably the biggest challenge Â… the focus [of branch design] is much more vehicular than it used to be,” Soupcoff said.
Most drive-through lines can be situated behind the building, allowing the look of the branch storefront to be less dependent on car traffic.
Jones agreed that drive-through tellers have become much more popular as the marketplace has evolved. Because of ATM safety concerns, Jones said many people feel more comfortable driving up to an ATM during off-hours and conducting their transaction from the car instead of standing alone in a vestibule.
Bryan Poisson, president of Approach Architects in Boston, has designed branches for Wainwright Bank, Brookline Bank, Winchester Savings and Bank of America. Banks, he said, have a different mission with their branches than in the past.
“They’re trying to make the retail branch a destination,” Poisson said.
Both Wainwright Bank and Brookline Bank have used that approach with an Internet cafe and meet-and-greet stations, respectively.
Bank executives and architects acknowledge that branch design has become a crucial part of the branding process for financial institutions.
“There was a lull in branching for the better part of 15 years,” said MacBurnie. “There seems to be somewhat of a recovery.”
Poisson said banks’ goals have changed, creating a need for different types of design.
“It was all about servicing the customer [in the past],” said Poisson. “[Now the industry] is switching to a sales approach.”
Because banks are now competing against each other with more products, it is important that they have a clean look in their branches, like a sales floor, that functions in versatile ways.
“They want to have a nice, fresh look,” Poisson said.
Jones said banks used to update their look every decade or so, but it is happening on a more frequent basis as they assess changes in their retail environment.
“We’re seeing things change every five to seven years,” Jones said. “There is more focus on retail customers across the industry.”
Even with branches that incorporate many of the comfortable elements of a New England home, the designers have to keep in mind that a bank ultimately is still a place of business.
“We’re trying to create something warm and inviting Â… yet it is still a business” with all the necessary elements conducive to functionality, said Soupcoff.
