{"id":24413,"date":"2012-05-10T08:47:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T12:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=24413"},"modified":"2012-05-10T11:58:44","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T15:58:44","slug":"ceci-est-une-banque-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/05\/10\/ceci-est-une-banque-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto&#8217;s bank architecture, pt. I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/05\/10\/ceci-est-une-banque-part-1\/sugamo-shinkin-bank-emmanuelle-moureaux-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-27653\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27653\" title=\"Sugamo Shinkin Bank, Moureaux\" src=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2012\/12\/sugamo-shinkin-bank-emmanuelle-moureaux-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"474\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our money is very important to us, and where we wish to store it is a constant work in progress by architects and designers. With many new concept branches popping up throughout the city within the past few years, it raises the questions: Why the radical change? Is it even that different?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Banking in Toronto:<\/p>\n<p>Toronto bank architecture\u00a0at the beginning of the twentieth century was one that relied heavily on a reference to classicism. Cultural attachment to Greek and Roman associations led to their symbolic use in early bank architecture. In many ways, early banks of heavy stone facades such as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historicplaces.ca\/en\/rep-reg\/place-lieu.aspx?id=8843\">Bank of Toronto<\/a> (1905), designed by E.J Lennox were meant to intimidate and glorify, thus lending to a sense of security and confidence in one\u2019s banking. As such, the early Torontonian bank patron would feel privileged to enter such a grand, lavish and \u2018secure\u2019 space \u2013 at least in theory. While many of the classical references remain in our modern structures, the purpose of bank architecture began to sway by the middle of the twentieth century. One of the earliest modern bank structures in North America \u2013 SOM\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.greatbuildings.com\/buildings\/Manufacturers_Trust_Co.html\">Manufacturers Trust Company<\/a> (New York, 1954) displayed this new movement of thought, which was described in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Money-Matters-Critical-Look-Architecture\/dp\/0070305331\">Money Matters<\/a> as an \u201call-glass display case for banking\u2026[it] broke the masonry-fortress psychology of branch banking up to then. From then on banks all across the country became friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"600\" height=\"450\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fspacing%2Fsets%2F72157629548492182%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fspacing%2Fsets%2F72157629548492182%2F&amp;set_id=72157629548492182&amp;jump_to=\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/apps\/slideshow\/show.swf?v=109615\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"600\" height=\"450\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/apps\/slideshow\/show.swf?v=109615\" flashvars=\"offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fspacing%2Fsets%2F72157629548492182%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fspacing%2Fsets%2F72157629548492182%2F&amp;set_id=72157629548492182&amp;jump_to=\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>By the second half of the century, technology had become an integral part of architectural design, and had \u2013 in many ways \u2013 transformed its appearance.\u00a0As such, banks could and most often did adopt these\u00a0new industrial materials (glass, steel), with an intention of revealing\u00a0their \u2018sacred\u2019 interiors to the public, and the new task of accessibility. The advancement of technological\u00a0security systems lessened the need for symbolic\u00a0assurance and heavy stone facades. Despite maintaining many classical components, criticism of early modern bank architecture formed, largely for its alleged portrayal of a bank\u2019s business as a service rather than a \u2018fundamental cornerstone of our existence\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Toronto banks compete against each other by expanding their services. Dog-friendly banks, multi-lingual services, self-service machines (including drive-thrus), extended hours, free coin-counters, and many other services are being added to the list. In contrast to creating a sense of privilege in their patrons in early bank design, banks today seem to be expressing a sense of privilege in servicing their patrons. This difference comes especially during a time of greater financial difficulty and a highly competitive banking industry, when the need for efforts and incentives in luring customers with all sorts of offers becomes elevated.<\/p>\n<p>While today one is\u00a0able to do the majority of his or her banking online, attention to bank branch design\u00a0remains as a major\u00a0task of building loyalty and recognition, which starts \u2013 in many ways \u2013 at the local branch.\u00a0The five major banks in Toronto continue this battle,\u00a0installing their recognizable branches, kiosks and atms in lesser-grandiose locations such as below condominiums, and inside grocery stores, as they\u00a0campaign for depositors. Moreover, the growing need for \u2018identity\u2019 in a post-modern corporate world has left much of our\u00a0former classical bank\u00a0structures seeking new occupancy in the forms of\u00a0hotels, the <a href=\"http:\/\/archiseek.com\/2009\/1886-hockey-hall-of-fame-former-bank-of-montreal-toronto-ontario\/\">Hockey Hall of Fame<\/a>,\u00a0and fine\u00a0European fashion houses (like that of\u00a0Stephan Caras in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.insidetoronto.com\/news\/local\/article\/870163\">1905 Darling &amp; Pearson original<\/a>\u00a0on Queen East). Ultra high-tech designs with lighting effects, vibrant colours, and\u00a0environmentally sustainable systems\u00a0are beginning to form a wild range of new bank structures, linked most notably\u00a0by their attempts to be different. On a global scale, some outstanding examples are Norman Foster&#8217;s designs for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dezeen.com\/2011\/03\/25\/bmce-headquarters-by-foster-partners\/\">BMCE<\/a> which include two modular headquarters in Casablanca and Rabat, and Emmanuelle Moureaux\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emmanuelle.jp\/03Architecture\/23SugamoShimura\/SugamoShimura_01e.html\">Sugamo Shinkin Bank<\/a> in Tokyo. In Toronto&#8217;s financial district, this change can be noted (albeit in a much more conservative fashion)\u00a0with the latest addition of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/RBC_Centre\">RBC Centre<\/a> by Bregman + Hamann <em>Architects.<\/em> With a rapidly growing turnover rate in their smaller branch designs,\u00a0it will be interesting to see what forms the next set of\u00a0Canadian bank headquarter structures will take.<\/p>\n<p>While symbolic and material connections help to\u00a0make sense of the transition of bank architecture,\u00a0one of the ultimate connections lies\u00a0in\u00a0its eager adaptability\u00a0to sociocultural changes and needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our money is very important to us, and where we wish to store it is a constant work in progress by architects and designers. With many new concept branches popping up throughout the city within the past few years, it raises the questions: Why the radical change? Is it even that different?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[309,19034,19025,16040,19031,19030,10197,218,19029,19023,19026,19039,19028,19037,19038,19032,19042,5302,19036,469,1811,1154,3436,316,19024,19043,19040,762,19041,19027,19033,468,19,19035],"class_list":["post-24413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","tag-bank","tag-bank-architecture","tag-bank-branch-design","tag-bank-of-toronto","tag-bank-patron","tag-bank-structures","tag-banking","tag-banks","tag-branch-banking","tag-casablanca","tag-classical-bank-structures","tag-earliest-modern-bank-structures","tag-early-bank-architecture","tag-early-bank-design","tag-early-banks","tag-early-modern-bank-architecture","tag-emmanuelle-moureaux","tag-freemasonry","tag-multi-lingual-services","tag-new-york","tag-norman-foster","tag-north-america","tag-pearson","tag-queen","tag-rabat","tag-rbc-centre","tag-soms-manufacturers-trust-company","tag-steel","tag-stephan-caras","tag-sustainable-systems","tag-technological-security-systems","tag-tokyo","tag-toronto","tag-ultra-high-tech-designs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Toronto&#039;s bank architecture, pt. 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