When the 121 Financial sought to redefine the traditional banking office environment with a fresh, new building concept, they selected Gresham Smith to help guide them through the process. Not only did the company relocate their corporate headquarters from the suburbs to the arsty Five Points district in Jacksonville’s Riverside area, our design team helped the 80-year-old organization redefine their brand strategy and infuse it throughout their new space.

Client

121 Financial Credit Union

Location

Jacksonville, Florida

Project Type

Workplace

Accolades

Showcase

25k

square-feet of office space

3

prior office locations consolidated into one open-foorplan office

1

cohesive brand story infused throughout the space

Guiding Principles

  • Improved collaboration between departments
  • Internal and external transparency
  • On-site flexibility of workspaces to improve employee satisfaction
  • Formal and informal spaces for interaction
Appealing to a New, Younger Demographic

Appealing to a New, Younger Demographic

121 Financial desired a complete paradigm shift, so they moved their support and operations staff to a historic neighborhood that has much deeper roots in Jacksonville and a bohemian flare that appeals to a growing youthful demographic. They chose a multitenant office building originally constructed in the late 1970s that required extensive interior rehabilitation to bring it up to code for a single tenant for adaptive reuse.

Creating Greater Transparency

Creating Greater Transparency

In the old environment, around 60 percent of staff were behind closed doors in offices that were situated along extended, dark hallways. The client wanted to tear down these physical and psychological barriers, especially between department leaders and employees. Our design delivers the complete transparency and clear visibility they were seeking and gets people talking to one another.

Rebranding Effort to Attract and Retain Talent

Rebranding Effort to Attract and Retain Talent

We worked to reach across generations, accommodating the established tastes of existing customers while appealing to the growing millennial market as we worked to rebrand their identity, methodology and core values. We selected the client’s core values, which are based on the Seven Cooperative Principles of Credit Unions, to be prominently displayed throughout the space as large wall and floor graphics.

Gallery

121 Financial Credit Union Headquarters

Project Contact

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Mary Couch, IIDA, LEED AP BD+C
Mary Couch, IIDA, LEED AP BD+C
Senior Interior Designer