Profile

National Bank of Commerce

Lincoln, Nebraska
Completed 1976

Lead Designer: James Ingo Freed

Bank headquarters and investment office building
 

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The National Bank of Commerce is located on a difficult sliver site (300' x 75') at the crossroads of downtown Lincoln. Building here required augmentation of a newfound sense of urban vitality; to do otherwise would have seriously weakened future downtown consolidation.

The unusually wide streets of this midwestern city negated the creation of an outdoor plaza, since opening the corner would have placed a void exactly where activity should exist. The building was therefore designed to hold the critical intersection of O and 13th streets. Its south entrance cantilevers over the sidewalk on a huge 12-foot transfer beam to create a cube of public space that is inside and outside at once. The 60-foot high "porch," scaled to neighboring buildings, leads into a landscaped courtyard (effectively, a family room for the city) that invites exhibits and other community events. From here, one passes directly into the open-span banking hall. On the exterior, the building stretches the full block frontage to create a single, unified experience. A continuous ribbon of butt-jointed glass runs tight against the sidewalk to reveal interior activities. The strategy was to celebrate downtown Lincoln by bringing the space and life of its legendary streets inside.

NBC was constructed of board-formed architectural concrete, cast in place with rapid consecutive pours to avoid variations in tone. It is among the last and finest of the firm's many concrete buildings.

Major Components

8,075 s/f Banking Hall; 3,200 s/f Main Lobby / Garden Court; 4,400 s/f Concourse Banking Lobby; 88,000 s/f Bank Operations; 20,000 s/f Boardroom / Executive Dining / Café; 102,200 s/f Tenant Office Space

Awards

I. M. Pei & Partners services

Architectural Design; Interior Design of public spaces; coordination with associate architect on construction documents and construction administration

Associate Architect

Davis / Fenton / Strange / Darling, Lincoln, NE

Structural

Weiskopf & Pickworth, New York, NY 

Mechanical / Electrical

Davis / Fenton / Strange / Darling, Lincoln, NE

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