Awards
InBusiness Commercial Design Awards
2018
Objective:
Community Engagement
Summit Credit Union’s newest branch in Monona, Wisconsin was designed to establish a strategic presence in the Monona community. This facility sought to reflect Summit’s ongoing commitment to member service, while adding value to and supporting local small businesses and households.
Summit Credit Union desired a highly visible site and facility that reaches out to the community. The site presented several challenges to achieve this goal. These challenges include limited street exposure to Monona Drive, being longer in the east-west direction, and the street having a north-south orientation. The city of Monona Plan Commission also required the building to front onto Monona Drive.
SOLUTION:
Dynamic Planning
In response to the fact that the site has two “fronts” and no “back”, the branch is designed as a 4-sided building with a welcoming street façade on the east and a main entrance and parking lot on the west. Due to the site constraints, the floor plan of the branch is trapezoidal, to provide enough floor area to accommodate all the program elements within an active and elegant design. The unique trapezoidal form of the building overhangs and serves as visual reminder of Summit reaching out to the community on Monona Drive. Overall, Summit was able to create a highly visible building on a challenging site, while the City of Monona gained a valuable community asset.
Sustainable Design
Floor-to-ceiling windows allow for much of the building to rely on natural daylighting, reducing the facility’s lighting energy use. To underscore Summit’s commitment to sustainability, large vertical sail-shaped fabric sunshades on the tall, highly glazed west elevation reduce solar heat gain and glare from late afternoon sunlight, while providing cool, diffused daylighting to the interior. The sunshades colorful graphics and dynamic trapezoidal shape provide a fun and inviting character to the branch. The site stormwater management needs are integrated into the landscape design with bioretention basins that are planted with native grasses. The sustainable design of the branch thoughtfully integrates Summit’s commitment to the triple bottom-line of community, environmental and economic stewardship.
As a member-owned cooperative, Summit Credit Union believes they have a responsibility to do what is best for its members, and collectively be good citizens of the community. The unique design and architecture of the Summit Credit Union Monona Branch clearly represents the credit union’s mission and vision into the future.