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The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Houston Branch

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Houston Branch

Balancing Openness and Transparency with Security


The Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank is a mixed-use project on a historically sensitive site on Buffalo Bayou. The building includes three disparate functions: Bank offices, publicly accessible conference facilities, research library and visitors’ center, and secure cash and check processing and vault facilities. The Bank challenged MGA&D to create a building that would communicate both the Federal Reserve’s strength and security and its openness as a democratic institution. We expressed the functional and symbolic principles in the plan, massing and facades, and used materials and details to relate the architecture to the adjacent residential and industrial context.

A Superior Workplace for Bank Employees and Operations


The design of the offices and the operational environment emphasizes efficiency and team-building. The office interiors are filled with natural light and employees have access to generous outdoor terraces, providing a satisfying workplace that emphasizes wellness. In contrast, 60% of the activities in the bank processing areas involve sophisticated industrial materials handling, including the use of automatic guide vehicles.

Integrating Art and Architecture


MGA&D has always believed in architecture’s capacity to tell stories and often uses the public art program to convey institutional values. Where the art program might be representational, associating it directly with the building design creates a powerful and integrated message. At the Federal Reserve Bank, the artist Kent Ullberg was commissioned to create a large sculpture of an eagle, called The Guardian, which we placed on a specially designed pedestal marking the entrance to the building.

Project Details

Project Market(s):

Workplace

Project Service(s):

Site Planning

Architecture

Programming

Interior Design

Graphics & Artwork

Professional Credits:

Associate Architect – PGAL

Size:

297,000 SF

Completion Date:

2005

2012 Site Security Study

Project Lead(s):

Thomas P. Rowe, AIA

Kathy Dy, AIA

Awards

National Sculpture Society Award for “The Guardian”

Evaluated as the most successful construction project in the Federal Reserve in the past 35 years

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