ESEO Federal Credit Union
The ESEO Federal Credit Union in Oklahoma City is a simple, low-slung
structure, barely 8000 square feet, with a broad overhanging roof supported
by rusting steel columns that spread like branches. A frugal working
class organization, ESEO insisted that its new building express those
values instead of slick corporate ones. Imagine a desk out in a field,
they told the architect, and us under a tree doing business.
Elliott responded to this refreshing mandate with a light, airy building that seems to float over the landscape. In addition to the rusting columns, he used inexpensive pine boards for rafters and trusses, local Dustin fieldstone for interior and exterior walls and stone aggregate for the floors. The atmosphere is straightforward and unpretentious, more lodge than "financial institution."
The bank vault stands directly inside the front door, visible to everyone who enters. A glass conference room occupies the center of the building, its only decoration a dramatic cabinet displaying the four sacred Native American colors: red, white, yellow and black. A symbolic campfire beside the parking lot marks their historic presence on the site and affirms the spirit of respectful coexistence among building, land and history that informs the entire design.
