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Members Choice Credit Union,
Seven Meadows Branch
 Architect
Turner Partners Architecture, LP
333 Cypress Run, #350, Houston, TX 77094
www.tpalp.com
General Description
Location: Katy, Texas
Date Bid: July 2007
Construction Period: Sep 2007 to June 2008
Total Square Feet: 4,560 Site: 1.7869 acres.
Number of Buildings: One.
Building Size: First floor, 4,560; total, 4,560 square feet.
Building Height: First floor, 12'; total, 30'6".
Basic Construction Type: New/Structural Steel.
Foundation: Slab-on-grade. Exterior Walls: Brick. Roof:
Asphalt Shingles. Floors: Concrete. Interior Walls: Metal
stud drywall.
Construction Team
Structural Engineer: Structural Engineers Group, Inc. - 4114
Sunbeam Road, Building 200, Jacksonville, FL 32257
Electrical & Mechanical Engineer: Campbell Engineering of North
Florida, Inc. - 2610 N.W. 43rd St., #2C, Gainesville, FL 32606
Interior Design: Personal Interiors - 2811 N.W. 41st Street,
#C-1, Gainesville, FL 32606
Located in the growing suburban city of Katy, Texas, the newest branch
of the Members Choice Credit Union - Seven Meadows is the third branch
building designed by the Turner Partners Architecture team. This new
prototype is different from the original design, as its site is a major
neighborhood entry point; creating another front door to the Seven
Meadows community it serves. The design patterns for the exterior
aesthetic have been created in the adjoining neighborhood style. This
style reflects local rural vernacular influences with its hill country
stone, sparse but effective ornamentation, and residential scale
proportions; as a result the building blends with and compliments the
local architecture of the community.
The aim of the project was to 'rethink' spaces intended for branch
customers in terms of their functionality, ergonomics and design. A
credit union branch is a complex system that includes transactions
concerning the exchange of documents, information and data, but above
all relationships to provide services and build loyalty. The branch is,
in fact, a key factor in a credit union's communication strategy.
From a strategic standpoint, the branch represents the 'moment of truth'
for financial institutions, one of the essential elements of the credit
union's multi-channeling and communication with customers is the focus
of all efforts underlying the various services offered. With this in
mind, the main challenge in this project was to create a unique,
imaginative service environment, which breaks the mold of traditional
credit union branches. In the case of the new Members Choice branch, its
architecture invents this new expression, which respects the fundaments
of these types of financial institutions and is based on cost-effective
real estate solutions.
Turner Partners' succeeds in re-engineering the Members Choice branch as
a facility to be utilized in a positive and constructive manner,
combining ideas and advanced solutions, which focuses predominantly on
the interior environment for the customer, to create the branch that
meets current and future needs. This environment combines operational
requirements with moments of involvement and interactive zones making
customers, and their needs, the real protagonists.
The result is a new Members Choice branch that is an interactive,
user-friendly facility in which the public areas are accentuated by high
spaces, flooded with natural light from clerestory windows.
Visitors are greeted immediately upon arrival at the front service
kiosk. The lobby hosts a customer meeting area with modern, chic
furnishings, ample seating, natural stone floors, free-coffee stations,
and flat-screen televisions tuned to news and finance. In arms reach,
the "Kids Corner" activity area is colorful, and equipped with
child-proof furniture and entertaining games. Surrounding the welcoming
center stems the various financing functions including loan offices,
conference room, teller stations, vault, and safety-deposit box areas
with a break room for the employees.
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