Midfirst Credit Union
This drive-in office for MidFirst Credit Union began as a windowless
drugstore in a derelict parking lot. Elliott + Associates transformed
it into a community landmark by connecting it to the area's bridge-building,
steel-making past.
Middletown is an old industrial town on the Erie Canal, not far from a magnificent structural steel bridge by John Roebling, architect of the Brooklyn Bridge. Elliott + Associates evoke that precedent explicitly with a dramatic steel truss cantilevered over the bank's drive-in lanes. Its towers and cables and sleek floating canopy recall both Roebling and the tradition of steel construction that made Middletown famous.
Inside, the architects developed a sophisticated system of skylights, louvers and baffles to illuminate every corner of this previously dark and gloomy space. All offices have glass partitions and everyone has a view of a 200-foot long stream that meanders through the lobby like a miniature Erie Canal. Without being cute or mindlessly nostalgic, MidFirst simultaneously honors the past and looks to the future.
