The Irwin Union Bank building in Columbus, Indiana, was built in 1954. It was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 2001 for its architecture.
The building consists of a one-story bank structure adjacent to a three-story office annex. A portion of the office annex was built along with the banking hall in 1954. The remaining, much larger portion, designed by Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates, was built in 1973.
Eero Saarinen designed the bank building with its glazed hall to be set off against the blank background of its three-story brick annex. Two steel and glass vestibule connectors lead from the north side of this structure to the annex.
The building was designed to distance the Irwin Union Bank from traditional banking architecture, which mostly echoed imposing, neoclassical style buildings of brick or stone. Tellers were behind iron bars and removed from their customers. Saarinen worked to develop a building that would welcome customers rather than intimidate them.
On Friday, September 18, 2009, Irwin Union Bank and Trust Company, Columbus, Indiana, was closed by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. First Financial Bank of Hamilton, Ohio, purchased all deposits and virtually all assets of Irwin Union Bank and will participate in a loss-share transaction jointly with the FDIC. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) for both institutions will be $850 million.
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