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Irwin Conference Center
The Irwin Conference Center (also the Irwin Office Building and Conference Center; formerly known as the Irwin Union Bank Building) is a commercial building at 500 Washington Street, on the northwest corner with Fifth Street, in Columbus, Indiana, United States. Constructed as the Irwin Union Bank's downtown Columbus branch, the building was designed in a modern style. Eero Saarinen designed the one-story main building and the original three-story office wing in 1954, while his associates Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo designed a three-story office annex in 1973. Dan Kiley designed the surrounding landscape, which includes a lawn, trees, and a drive-through facility.
The main building, at Washington and Fifth streets, has a square floor plan with a glass facade and a concrete roof with nine shallow domes. The original office wing, north of the banking hall, is set back behind another building and has a brick and concrete facade and windows. A steel-and-glass arcade leads westward to the annex, which is made of similar materials. Inside, the first floor of the main building is an open plan space with tellers' counters, a conference area, and various pieces of furniture. A staircase descends to a basement that originally included a kitchen, dining area, vaults, and offices. The office wing and annex contains additional offices. The building has received critical acclaim for its design over the years, and it is designated as a National Historic Landmark because of its architectural significance.
The idea for the bank came from J. Irwin Miller, the president of the Irwin Union Trust Company (later the Irwin Union Bank) and a major architectural patron. He commissioned Saarinen to design a new building for the bank in 1950, and Irwin Union Trust acquired the site the next year. Although construction began in 1953, most work did not take place until the following year. The building opened on March 10, 1955. The design helped increase the Irwin Union Bank's patronage, and the bank decided to expand the building in 1970; the annex was completed in 1973. The bank acquired further properties nearby in the late 1980s and early 2000s. After the Irwin Union Bank went bankrupt in 2009, the building was acquired by the First Financial Bank, which sold it the next year to the conglomerate Cummins Inc. The bank building became a conference center and office building until it closed in 2020.
The Irwin Union Bank Building (also the Irwin Office Building and Conference Center) is located at 500 Washington Street in Columbus, a city in Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. It is set back from the northwest corner of the intersection of Fifth and Washington streets, which, at the time of the bank's construction, was the town's busiest. Adjoining the Irwin Union Bank Building are various commercial buildings, which rise two or three stories. The Irwin Union Bank Building's previous headquarters, a limestone building, was across the street. The Irwin Conference Center is one of several contemporary-styled buildings on Fifth Street in downtown Columbus, along with the Cummins Corporate Office Building, Cleo Rogers Memorial Library, and First Christian Church. It is also close to other structures such as The Republic Newspaper Office and Columbus City Hall.
As built, the bank building only occupied one-third of the site. The rear or western portion houses a drive-through window and large parking lot with trees. When the bank building was erected, the Irwin Union Bank did not own the entire site, and part of what is now the parking lot was occupied by another structure. Dan Kiley was the bank building's landscape architect, selecting specific types of trees and foliage to provide shade and integrate the building into the streetscape. He used littleleaf linden trees as the basis of the space, with euonymus as ground cover and seasonal spring bulbs, begonias, geraniums, and chrysanthemums as accents. Kiley also added an underground sprinkler system to irrigate the plants. These plantings created a park-like feeling, as the Irwin Union Bank Building is shorter than the structures around it.
The main bank building is set back 12 feet (3.7 m) from the sidewalk. Trees are also placed around the bank building, which, according to the Architectural Forum, was intended to attract passersby. Originally, there were 27 sweet gum trees surrounding the main building, each measuring 18 feet (5.5 m) high. The trees are placed near the sidewalk to help integrate the building into the streetscape, since the adjacent buildings are not recessed from the sidewalk. The original trees were saplings; they were intended to obscure the neighboring buildings as they grew, thereby reinforcing the building's park-like feeling. West of the building, the trees are planted in three rows measuring 20 feet (6.1 m) apart; some of the original linden trees have been replaced with honey locusts. There is also a lawn west of the original bank, surrounded by honey locusts.
The original plans included a drive-through facility to the west, with a driveway and parking lot for customers who did not want to go inside. A driveway, dating from 1966, travels between the trees, splitting up into multiple lanes divided by brick and concrete median strips. The driveway is paved in concrete aggregate with brick-paved borders, and there are steel and aluminum bollards illuminating the driveway. When the building was constructed, there were radiant heating coils embedded into the outdoor concrete slabs.
The Irwin Office Building and Conference Center was designed in two phases. The original, one-story bank and a small three-story office wing were designed by Eero Saarinen in 1954. The office wing conceals the irregular northern boundary of the lot, where the right-of-way of a railroad line cuts diagonally across the lot's northeast corner. Although the railroad had stopped running by World War II, Saarinen's building occupies part of the line's right-of-way, and an adjacent alleyway follows the railroad's path. To the west of the main building and office wing is a three-story office annex added in 1973 by Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, both of the firm Roche-Dinkeloo (a successor firm to Saarinen's practice). The Roche-Dinkeloo annex extends westward through the block. The writer Matt Shaw stated that the design combined the clean lines of Miesian buildings and the welcoming atmosphere of modernist buildings designed at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where Saarinen had studied.
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Irwin Conference Center
The Irwin Conference Center (also the Irwin Office Building and Conference Center; formerly known as the Irwin Union Bank Building) is a commercial building at 500 Washington Street, on the northwest corner with Fifth Street, in Columbus, Indiana, United States. Constructed as the Irwin Union Bank's downtown Columbus branch, the building was designed in a modern style. Eero Saarinen designed the one-story main building and the original three-story office wing in 1954, while his associates Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo designed a three-story office annex in 1973. Dan Kiley designed the surrounding landscape, which includes a lawn, trees, and a drive-through facility.
The main building, at Washington and Fifth streets, has a square floor plan with a glass facade and a concrete roof with nine shallow domes. The original office wing, north of the banking hall, is set back behind another building and has a brick and concrete facade and windows. A steel-and-glass arcade leads westward to the annex, which is made of similar materials. Inside, the first floor of the main building is an open plan space with tellers' counters, a conference area, and various pieces of furniture. A staircase descends to a basement that originally included a kitchen, dining area, vaults, and offices. The office wing and annex contains additional offices. The building has received critical acclaim for its design over the years, and it is designated as a National Historic Landmark because of its architectural significance.
The idea for the bank came from J. Irwin Miller, the president of the Irwin Union Trust Company (later the Irwin Union Bank) and a major architectural patron. He commissioned Saarinen to design a new building for the bank in 1950, and Irwin Union Trust acquired the site the next year. Although construction began in 1953, most work did not take place until the following year. The building opened on March 10, 1955. The design helped increase the Irwin Union Bank's patronage, and the bank decided to expand the building in 1970; the annex was completed in 1973. The bank acquired further properties nearby in the late 1980s and early 2000s. After the Irwin Union Bank went bankrupt in 2009, the building was acquired by the First Financial Bank, which sold it the next year to the conglomerate Cummins Inc. The bank building became a conference center and office building until it closed in 2020.
The Irwin Union Bank Building (also the Irwin Office Building and Conference Center) is located at 500 Washington Street in Columbus, a city in Bartholomew County, Indiana, United States. It is set back from the northwest corner of the intersection of Fifth and Washington streets, which, at the time of the bank's construction, was the town's busiest. Adjoining the Irwin Union Bank Building are various commercial buildings, which rise two or three stories. The Irwin Union Bank Building's previous headquarters, a limestone building, was across the street. The Irwin Conference Center is one of several contemporary-styled buildings on Fifth Street in downtown Columbus, along with the Cummins Corporate Office Building, Cleo Rogers Memorial Library, and First Christian Church. It is also close to other structures such as The Republic Newspaper Office and Columbus City Hall.
As built, the bank building only occupied one-third of the site. The rear or western portion houses a drive-through window and large parking lot with trees. When the bank building was erected, the Irwin Union Bank did not own the entire site, and part of what is now the parking lot was occupied by another structure. Dan Kiley was the bank building's landscape architect, selecting specific types of trees and foliage to provide shade and integrate the building into the streetscape. He used littleleaf linden trees as the basis of the space, with euonymus as ground cover and seasonal spring bulbs, begonias, geraniums, and chrysanthemums as accents. Kiley also added an underground sprinkler system to irrigate the plants. These plantings created a park-like feeling, as the Irwin Union Bank Building is shorter than the structures around it.
The main bank building is set back 12 feet (3.7 m) from the sidewalk. Trees are also placed around the bank building, which, according to the Architectural Forum, was intended to attract passersby. Originally, there were 27 sweet gum trees surrounding the main building, each measuring 18 feet (5.5 m) high. The trees are placed near the sidewalk to help integrate the building into the streetscape, since the adjacent buildings are not recessed from the sidewalk. The original trees were saplings; they were intended to obscure the neighboring buildings as they grew, thereby reinforcing the building's park-like feeling. West of the building, the trees are planted in three rows measuring 20 feet (6.1 m) apart; some of the original linden trees have been replaced with honey locusts. There is also a lawn west of the original bank, surrounded by honey locusts.
The original plans included a drive-through facility to the west, with a driveway and parking lot for customers who did not want to go inside. A driveway, dating from 1966, travels between the trees, splitting up into multiple lanes divided by brick and concrete median strips. The driveway is paved in concrete aggregate with brick-paved borders, and there are steel and aluminum bollards illuminating the driveway. When the building was constructed, there were radiant heating coils embedded into the outdoor concrete slabs.
The Irwin Office Building and Conference Center was designed in two phases. The original, one-story bank and a small three-story office wing were designed by Eero Saarinen in 1954. The office wing conceals the irregular northern boundary of the lot, where the right-of-way of a railroad line cuts diagonally across the lot's northeast corner. Although the railroad had stopped running by World War II, Saarinen's building occupies part of the line's right-of-way, and an adjacent alleyway follows the railroad's path. To the west of the main building and office wing is a three-story office annex added in 1973 by Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, both of the firm Roche-Dinkeloo (a successor firm to Saarinen's practice). The Roche-Dinkeloo annex extends westward through the block. The writer Matt Shaw stated that the design combined the clean lines of Miesian buildings and the welcoming atmosphere of modernist buildings designed at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where Saarinen had studied.
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