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Home > Issue by Date > May 2007

A Winning Strategy

Old National Bank in Indiana seizes the opportunity to bring employees together.

By Anne Vazquez

This past February, as the Vince Lombardi Trophy traveled around Indiana to mark the Indianapolis Colts’ Super Bowl victory, the headquarters building of Old National Bank in Evansville was one of the stops along the way. A central atrium in the bank’s newly constructed headquarters building enabled the company to take full advantage of the event.

“Having the atrium space really allowed us to become part of the celebration,” says Andrea Wunderlich, facilities manager for Old National. “We had close to 4,000 people come to see the trophy in a four hour period. We would never have been able to do that without the type of public space we now have.”

The 50-stop trophy tour (for which Old National was also a sponsor) was one of many community events that the bank now hosts on a regular basis. “We offer the space to non-profit organizations to use for fundraisers and awards banquets,” says Wunderlich. “We also work with the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana to display winning artwork. There have been a variety of events in the atrium.”

Prior to moving into the building in the fall of 2004, Old National’s headquarters had been located in a smaller, less hospitable facility several blocks away from the current site. “We were outgrowing that building,” explains Wunderlich, who has been with the bank for 20 years (10 of those in facilities management). “We had the option to purchase the building and rebuild it to be what we needed. However, we decided to look at other options.”

Committed to staying in downtown Evansville, the Old National team considered available sites in the area. One potential location was on the banks of the Ohio River—also the original site of Old National, which first opened its doors in the town back in 1834.

When Old National expressed an interest in the spot back in 2000, the land was owned by the city of Evansville, which was using the space as a parking lot. The central location on Main Street, coupled with the fact that it was the bank’s original locale, spurred Old National to pursue the site.

“When we began to talk to city officials about acquiring the lot, one of their concerns was the loss of parking space,” says Wunderlich. “Each year in Evansville there is a riverfront festival, and the parking lot was put into use not only during that event but throughout the year.” The issue was resolved when Old National agreed to build a 618-space parking garage as part of its headquarters project. The garage serves as private parking during the week and is open to the public for special events.

The Game Plan

With the site selected, Old National set out to hire an architectural firm to design the new building. With a desire to work with a local firm, the bank reached out to two firms for proposals. Ultimately, Veazey Parrott Durkin & Shoulders (VPDS) in Evansville, was chosen as the principal architectural firm on the project. The St. Louis, MO office of HOK (Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum) was chosen as the design architect.

Explains Wunderlich, “We wanted to work with a local firm, but we also required that the firm partner with a larger company that had experience in multi-story glass buildings. This type of design was not typical in Evansville, so we wanted VPDS to find a firm that could bring that expertise to the project.”

Explains Joe Robertson, AIA, vice president and senior project manager for HOK, “VPDS was the prime firm on the project. That firm held all the contracts, and we worked for them as the designers.”

Team Focus

The new headquarters represents a renewed outlook for the 173-year-old financial institution. The quality of services and expertise provided by the bank remains the same; however, the physical characteristics of the building are very different from Old National’s previous headquarters.

The most noticeable difference is the extensive use of glass all along the building envelope. The transparency of the design gives the facility an open, airy atmosphere that is new to this traditional financial organization.

The expanses of glass along the entire building were incorporated for several reasons—the proximity to the Ohio River being one. “The site affords a magnificent view of the river,” explains Robertson. “We wanted everyone in the building to be able to take those in.

“The curvature of the building came out of the notion of having better views up and down the river,” Robertson continues. “It was a way of not boxing it off as a square building would.”

The transparency of the building goes beyond being an issue of aesthetics, however. When VPDS and HOK took on the project, the bank discussed with them what it wanted to accomplish with the construction of the new building. There were several conditions that needed to be met to make the building a useful and successful facility for the company.

For one, Old National wanted to capitalize on the opportunity to place related departments near to each other. “In the old building,” says Robertson, “there wasn’t really a rhyme or reason to where individual departments were located. But with a blank slate, we were able to speak to department heads to find out who needed to be next to each other. We then began to determine how big the various spaces needed to be, and from there, we moved onto blocking out the spaces in the floor plan and stacking the building.”

The building would consist of an eight story tower joined to an adjacent three story building by an atrium. “All of the public spaces are on the first three floors of both buildings,” explains Wunderlich, “with those spaces linked by the atrium in between.”

The first floor contains the banking center and The Bistro restaurant. Back of house spaces on that floor include a building equipment room, a security area, and a loading dock. The upper floors of the tower contain offices, training centers, and conference rooms.

With most of the private offices placed in the central part of the building, the majority of employees were placed on the perimeter in open floor plan configurations. “By turning the building ‘inside out,’ we reduced the number of private offices by about 100 to opt for the open office atmosphere,” says Wunderlich.

“The idea was this would increase networking and improve how people interacted,” she continues. “In the old building, a lot of people would walk directly into their office, spend the day in there, and then leave. We wanted them to have a little more interaction, not only from a support and socialization aspect, but also from a cross selling aspect.”

The exceptions to the open plan configuration were department managers and members of senior management, who remained in private offices.

Wunderlich notes that while most employees are pleased with the open office approach, there are those who miss the privacy of an office. “There are some people that were displaced from offices that love it,” she says. “And there are also those who, every time I see them, say, ‘Anytime you want to give me my door back would be fine.’ It depends on their personality and how they do business. We haven’t gone backwards on that just yet, though there may be a point where we do add some private offices.”

Efficient Maneuvers

Controlling energy consumption in the building was another important focus for the project, and the use of glass around its envelope played a part in reaching that goal. “We wanted Old National to consider other approaches—beyond a brick building punctuated with windows,” explains Robertson. “We also wanted to take advantage of new technologies for heating, air conditioning, and lighting.”

In terms of lighting, the glass on the building envelope allows natural daylight to flood into the building. To maximize the potential of this natural lighting, the designers specified optical light shelves to be placed above the windows.

Explains Robertson, “The shelves improve the lighting inside by redirecting daylight deep into the space. In response, the artificial lights are electronically dimmed, which reduces energy consumption.”

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An underfloor air distribution system was used for heating and cooling purposes. (The raised floors also house wiring underneath.)

Energy efficiency was taken into account when locating the mechanical rooms as well. Heating and cooling equipment is located on the first floor of the tower with another set of equipment on the fourth floor. This strategy was intended to avoid overworking the systems, since each set only needs to distribute air upward no more than four floors.

“We are planning to begin a study into the energy usage in the building,” says Wunderlich. “In the beginning, we were using more energy than we needed to. The slabs in between each floor were accumulating a lot of heat during the day, and we were originally running the cooling system from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. During the off hours, we simply circulated air. We found that in the morning, we were struggling to gain control of the temperature.

“Eventually, we found it is more efficient to run the system 24 hours a day at about 80% capacity, rather than the 100% as we were doing previously,” continues Wunderlich. “We haven’t conducted a study yet, because we didn’t feel like we were ready, but now that we are at a point where we think everything is working as it should. Our maintenance staff has done a fantastic job at learning how to manipulate the system.”

Home Field Advantage

The new outlook for Old National has increased productivity and improved the bank’s profile in its hometown. “I like the fact that we are able to interact more with members of the community,” says Wunderlich. “That has been largely because the building has provided us with a space to host events comfortably and securely.” Back on its original site, the bank has found a home for many years to come.

This article was based on interviews with Robertson (joe.robertson@hok.com) and Wunderlich (Andrea_Wunderlich@oldnational.com.

To share your new construction or renovation story, please send an e-mail to avazquez@groupc.com. To read past Showcase features, visit www.TodaysFacilityManager.com.

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