DETAIL | HONOR 

Entry Name: SAC Federal Credit Union Ames Branch, Check Writing Desk
Firm: LEO A DALY
Photographer: LEO A DALY
Owner: SAC Federal Credit Union

Tasked with designing a check writing desk for a local credit union’s branch facility, the design team began by asking themselves, “How can this piece be designed to not only adhere to its functional requirements, but integrate the overall design of the space and act as an anchor for the lobby?”

The team began by understanding the material aspects of the space. The wood flooring was then conceptually stacked to create a box which was articulated to meet accessibility standards and programmatic requirements. To further express the lightness of the material, each individual piece of wood was spaced ¼” apart and hung from an internally-lit and transparent inner wall structure. 

The final result is a sculptural check writing desk that adheres to its programmatic constraints and acts as an anchor for the lobby.

Jury Comments: Reads as though an existing building. The idea is that the architects took a simple credit union and made a check writing table. With magnets you can remove panels to access computer wires. Very complex structure rendered simply. Looks huge – could be a building.