Architect

Bartlett Brainard Eacott 
70 Griffin Road South, Bloomfield, CT 06002

General Description

Location: Naugatuck, Connecticut
Date Bid: Aug 2005
Construction Period: Sep 2005 to June 2006
Total Square Feet: 26,327 Site: 7 acres.
Number of Buildings: One.
Building Size: First floor, 12,520; second floor, 13,807; total, 26,327 square feet.
Building Height: First floor, 8’6”; second floor, 8’6”; floor to floor, 14’; total, 29’. 
Basic Construction Type: Structural Steel/New. 
Foundation: Cast-in-place, slab-on-grade. Exterior Walls: Precast, curtainwall. Roof: Membrane, metal. Floors: Concrete. Interior Walls: CMU, metal stud drywall.   

Construction Team

Architect: Tecton Architects, Inc. - One Hartford Square West, #103, Hartford, CT 06106
Structural Engineer: Szewczak Associates - 200 Fisher Drive, Avon, CT 06001
Electrical & Mechanical Engineer: BVH Integrated Services - 50 Griffin Road South, Bloomfield, CT 06002

Naugatuck Savings Bank is a growing regional bank located in western Connecticut. The bank has eleven branches with the main office located in an historic building in downtown Naugatuck. The new Operations and Retail Branch building was developed to house several of the bank's service staff including on-line banking, IT, and customer service.

Besides expanding its services to a new part of town the bank reinforced its strong commitment to the community by building a large meeting room that is available to local civic organizations off-hours and is accessible without compromising the security of their operations.

The site also contributes to the community by providing a walking trail and gazebo for residents in the neighborhood.

The design of the retail branch bank follows a standard established by the bank in recent years that provides a comfortable environment for banking, investing and insurance. There is an Internet cafe with comfortable seating, large flat screen TV providing current financial news, and a coffee bar for its patrons.

The building has a structural steel frame with architectural precast skin. A radiused curtainwall around a central stair tower provides a visual break between the operations and retail elements. It also provides a pleasing respite when moving from one floor to the other. The upper portion of the columns at the curtainwall branch out to support the roof offering an organic element reflective of the surroundings of the site.

Customer and employee comfort throughout the building was carefully considered when the design team was selecting finishes, lighting and mechanical systems. As a whole the building is very comfortable to work in and visit. By using indirect lighting and high-performance ceilings the work spaces are glare free and quiet. Finishes instill a sense of professionalism, endurance and ease.

Large windows with northern exposure admit a pleasing light and provide park like views to the surrounding hills. Smaller punched windows on the other exposure let in controlled light that reaches inner spaces overtop of the low systems furniture walls.

The site is situated at an intersection on a relatively high-volume road. Careful planning situated the building for optimal sight lines and driver safety. The traffic flow takes advantage of the existing signalization and easily manages the peak flow for drive-through banking.

One of the major challenges was managing the storm water on site under a zero runoff requirement. This was achieved using a series underground galleys and oversized storm water piping. It is a successful design in that it is neither visible nor does it take away from future development opportunities for the site.    

Manufacturers

DIV. 3: Metal: Petersen Pac-Clad®.
DIV. 8: Window, Curtainwall, Entrances & Storefront: Kawneer.
DIV. 9: Acoustical: Armstrong.