This article is by Richard Hutchinson
Richard is a director at LOM who leads a wide range of architectural and interior design commissions in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Australia.
In 2018, I authored a CoreNet Leader article exploring how bank headquarters were undergoing a radical shift in design—from monolithic, fortress-like structures symbolizing power and security, to more modern, open, and community-focused environments. These changes were being driven by the growing importance of sustainability, flexibility, and brand values that align more closely with people and place.
Now, several years on—and having recently completed two significant bank HQ projects—I find it timely to reflect on how those predictions have held up and evolved. The projects, NatWest’s UK head office at 250 Bishopsgate and Unity Place for Santander in Milton Keynes, differ in approach, yet together offer a powerful confirmation of many of the ideas discussed in that original article.
The two buildings represent distinct approaches. 250 Bishopsgate is a retrofit of an existing building, executed over seven years in five phases—an incremental transformation aligned with business-as-usual (BAU) constraints and tight fiscal controls. Unity Place, by contrast, is a newly constructed building designed from the ground up to serve as a social and economic hub for Santander and the broader community.
Both serve core HQ functions but differ in form and cultural expression. One is more reserved, the other more radical—yet each demonstrates how banks are reimagining their real estate not just for efficiency, but for relevance.
250 Bishopsgate is a turn of the 21st century bank head office, acquired and re-invented by NatWest since 2008. Over time the workspace has evolved to create a richer experience reflective of the wider developments in the world of work. New cafes, social hubs and indoor green spaces have created a richer experience linking the building to the wider culture of the City.
Here, the building embodies a deep sense of place and community. Its design includes public-facing features like an amphitheatre and rentable event spaces, as well as local dining experiences including a microbrewery, bakery, and renowned chef-led restaurant. It’s a destination for both business and leisure—blending SME support, community activity, and cultural enrichment into one coherent ecosystem. Its grid-based layout even echoes the planned character of Milton Keynes itself.
Originally built as a traditional corporate office, the building has become more outward facing – creating new auditoriums, conference spaces and customer meeting facilities in place of internalised trading floors. A spectacular new meeting suite constructed over the reception space has linked the building to the street, connecting the bank to the City context. An unused roof level has been transformed into an outdoor garden workspace, providing views of the city skyline and creating a greater sense of place.
In contrast, Unity Place openly invites community engagement. Uniquely for a bank HQ, it actively limits Santander’s branding to allow space for other businesses and public activities without conflict. It serves not just employees, but the wider local population—a first in bank HQ design.
The development of 250 Bishopsgate was part of a wider property strategy consolidating multiple buildings into one, significantly reducing the bank’s office footprint. A flexible desk-sharing ratio supports efficient space usage, enabled by smart tech and secure IT environments like Chromebook check-in/check-out systems.
A modest, low-rise box in form, its true brilliance lies in the flexibility of its internal environment. Large floor plates support ‘plug-in’ functions that can evolve rapidly—daily, weekly, or long-term—responding to changing workplace needs.
Unity Place was conceived with flexibility at its core. The use of adaptable “stage sets” across open-plan spaces allows for seamless reconfiguration as staffing, technology, or operational needs evolve. From agile collaboration zones to quiet, reflective corners, the environment supports a fluid working culture.
One topic I didn’t fully explore in the 2018 article—but now see as essential—is the environmental and social impact of bank HQs. Unity Place sets a new benchmark here, not just in engineering and architecture, but in operation. It actively supports local life, enriches culture, and demonstrates a more human, responsible face of banking.
Equally, the reuse of existing assets—exemplified by 250 Bishopsgate—is becoming an environmental imperative. As more banks pursue retrofit over rebuild, we will likely see continued incremental investments woven around ongoing operations.
The transformation of bank headquarters from imposing, isolated icons to dynamic, community-engaged spaces is far from over. If Unity Place is the first HQ to fully embody this transition, it certainly won’t be the last. And as environmental and social expectations rise, the reinvention of corporate real estate will remain at the heart of banking’s evolving identity.
Given our involvement in both projects, it’s encouraging—but perhaps not surprising—that many of these trends have already materialized. We look forward to exploring them further in future projects, continuing to shape headquarters that not only serve business needs, but also knit seamlessly into the urban and social fabric of their locations.
And my original article …
Historically, bank buildings were fundamental symbols of power and stability. The grand palaces of the great European banking families of the 15th century, such as the Medicis and Strozzis, are a lasting testament to the physical embodiment of wealth in architecture. Indeed, until recently, the design of a typical bank head-office (headquarters, or HQ) facility still expressed the virtues of permanence, solidity and security, communicated through classical, conservative references. In an old-world environment based predominantly on the exchange of cash, this approach offered a straightforward logic in providing a safe, physical repository for cash and other valuables.
In the 1980s and 1990s, classical architectural references began to be replaced by more global approaches that sought to express the modern building materials of steel and glass. Examples include the NatWest tower in London, HSBC in Hong Kong, and Commerzbank in Frankfurt. In these cases, a tall and striking head-office presence served to provide a powerful communication of corporate strength and success in keeping with the values of a global brand. From the new millennium onwards – and especially following the onset of the global financial crisis from 2008 – issues of stakeholder accountability in the context of financial austerity have become increasingly important factors helping to shape the design of financial services HQs. Brand presence is now the key driving force for most businesses and the expression of traditional banking references has become far less relevant. A traditionally conservative approach and an overt global presence have been challenged by the increasing demands of sustainability, flexibility, and even a sense of restraint as key influencers in the designs of HQ buildings for banks.
Banks are increasingly seeking greater alignment and affinity with their core customers and stakeholders. As a result, in this digital economy, replicated global solutions are becoming outdated and showpiece edifices encapsulating prestige and identity are less relevant. Such solutions often lack any relevance to the specific requirements of local markets and contemporary designs are increasingly guided by contextualism.
Banks’ head-office buildings previously conceived as expressions of corporate power – and a means for distancing the banks from the customers they were supposed to serve – are now being re-envisioned in terms of how they can be more relevant to their national and cultural contexts and communities. Flat, mirrored, glazed facades as a default international style are being replaced with designs that reflect an open, welcoming and richer aesthetic, one that actively encourages interaction with the building by visitors.
One recent example of this trend is the new head office for the National Bank of Oman (NBO) in Muscat, Oman, for which LOM served as architect and designer. This dramatic structure stands on a prominent site near the city’s Grand Mosque and the city centre, and takes its inspiration from the history and topography of Oman, though reinterpreted in a radical, contemporary idiom.
Externally, the building envelope changes at each floor level to create a natural, stepped profile, rising from a rough-hewn stone base to a clean, distinctive parapet line. The design of the base – which comprises a load bearing natural stone façade of terraces – reflects the local mountainous landscape. Large, deep blocks mirror the qualities of a natural landform.
The façade of the upper floors – formed from a vertical precast panel system – is inspired by the architecture of traditional Omani forts such as Nizwa, Nakhal and Bahla. In addition, generous plantings overhang various external terraces, creating a visible connection with the surrounding landscape.
In a contrasting but equally significant development, some banks are seeking to consolidate their built assets through a greater efficiency and optimisation of the spaces they currently occupy. They are seeking significant reductions in their built footprint whilst creating a higher quality of functional space that meets the demands of contemporary working patterns; others are aiming to re-purpose space that may have become suboptimal for their changing requirements.
For example, working with project developer NatWest in London, LOM has repurposed a redundant cash-handling facility in Islington to provide a vibrant and varied co-working office space for RocketSpace. Specific elements of the building’s history were adapted to fit RocketSpace’s needs.
The double height of the existing loading bays, for example, was ideal for creating an events space, complete with auditorium, café and mezzanine level; the cash vault was reconfigured as a gaming room.
Most major banks and financial institutions now look to futureproof their occupied headquarters space through carefully considered design. If implemented in a way that reflects a strong understanding of an organisation’s long-term requirements, future changes can be implemented with minimum disruption to accommodate new business groups or even the sub-letting of space to other occupiers.
This idea is derived from a more strategic approach to the use of HQ floor space that includes the correct location of data centres, security facilities, cash vaults and other mission-critical activities. It also addresses issues of resilience and disaster-recovery to ensure continued operation of the HQ business through potential risks and disruptions.
Banks that have demonstrated these types of strategies include Bank of America, RBS and Tesco Bank. In Dubai, UAE, the practice recently delivered a new regional HQ building for HSBC’s Middle East business. Here, some 2,700 staff members were brought together in a technology friendly, agile workplace environment across 30,000 square meters (323,000 sq. ft.), a move that encourages collaboration and interaction for employees and visitors, and that provides a range of meeting, dining and gym facilities for staff.
In addition, the traditional and monotonous grid of linear workstations is being replaced with a more fluid use of space which offers a more interactive approach to working and collaboration. Terms such as ‘hive’, ‘club, ‘breakout’ and ‘chill’ are being used to define sub spaces that can support the creation and contraction of groups working in response to occupiers’ changing business conditions.
Offering enhanced flexibility necessitates a greater understanding of how space is used, especially where the integration of smart building systems allows for a higher degree of communication. This communication is not limited to the head office; state-of-the-art audio-visual capability supports communication across multiple sites and in different jurisdictions. This greater understanding of how banks’ HQ space is used supports an optimised approach to the allocation of private offices and meeting rooms; much of this need is dictated by data.
While some designs of new bank HQ buildings will invariably continue to reflect an approach that encapsulates some of the traditional attributes of the financial services sector, the face of banking has changed rapidly and irrevocably in recent years and new buildings and workspaces need to reflect that change; if not, customers will take their business elsewhere. Transparency, flexibility and a demonstrable commitment to customers in local markets form the new guiding principles of design, communicating a bank’s values and embodying its brand.
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