Old National Place is a 250,000-square-foot complex that includes an eight-story office building, a three-story pavilion connected by a glass-enclosed atrium, and an outdoor events plaza with landscaped gardens.

"Designed by HOK's St. Louis office and Evansville-based associate architect Veazey Parrott Durkin & Shoulders (VPDS), Old National Place connects the bank's employees to each other and to the community. Previously, employees were spread out among five locations, which hindered spontaneous interaction. Now, customers and employees enter the headquarters through a central, light-filled atrium that links the first three floors of the building by escalators and anchors all of the retail and customer contact spaces."

"'With this building we were able to bring together so many functions that before were three or four stories apart. Now, we've got them on the same floor so working together is much simpler,' says Andrea Wunderlich, assistant vice president and facility manager at Old National Bank."

"A significant change was eliminating a majority of private offices and relocating enclosed spaces like the auditorium or boardroom to the building core so as not to block out daylight that spills in from the building's floor-to-ceiling windows. 'All of the circulation is around the perimeter,' says Bob Blaha, director of interior design at HOK St. Louis. By clustering public spaces downstairs and increasing the circulation upstairs, he adds, 'the bank had to learn how to interact with clients and each other differently.' To help employees adjust to the change in workspace, the designers worked with Steelcase to create a prototype office in the bank's old lobby so that individual employees could sit in it, talk about it, and offer their input."

"'We displaced about 100 people from private offices,' says Wunderlich. 'Now, 18 months later, most of them have adjusted very well. I've had people tell me that they didn't realize how they had spent their entire day inside of four walls without interacting with peers. We're dealing with the same customer from different angles, and it's helping us network and realize those common links.'"

"The site is pursuing a Silver LEED rating from the USGBC. The building's elliptical shape and curtain-wall system are designed to maximize sunlight, while a daytime lighting system utilizes mini-optical light shelves to reflect sunlight inward, and an automatic dimming system adjusts interior lights accordingly. In all, the systems should produce a minimum of 30 percent savings in annual energy costs."

Source: "Public Banking," Contract, May 2006, by Katie Weeks. Read the story.