first national bank: charlotte

client: First National Bank

location: Charlotte, North Carolina

completed: 2021

firm: IKM Incorporated

Team credits: Joel Bernard, Samara Wheaton, Shannon Capone, Sydney McDonough

IKM decided to organize the program from FNB with a full floor of offices, workstations, call rooms, and huddle spaces above, and a conference center and break room taking up half the floorplate below. Although this separation of employees and guests, private workspace and public gathering space between the floors made sense, it was important that it still felt like one office and that employees were able to freely move about. Therefore an internal connecting stair outside of the building core egress stairwells was added to the plans.

I began the design of this feature with the clean lines and high finishes of the entire office in mind. The stair needed to fit into a limited footprint and had to turn the run twice. I used this constraint to build up the last several steps into a podium. The podium is clad with the same tile used on the floor and integrates seating to create a feature that is more than just a place to climb or descend. The upper stair is simple and clean, with painted steel stringers, precast terrazzo open treads, and point supported glass railings. The final result is remarkably similar to what was drawn in the documents and visualized using Enscape during the design process. The tilework deserves special recognition for it’s craftsmandship.