Title: Truist Innovation and Technology Center
Location of Proejct: Charlotte, NC
Project Completion Date: November 2021
Firm Name: Perkins&Will

Short Description: The Truist Innovation and Technology Center (ITC) is an energetic collision of complex and interrelated purposes that inspire a workforce to innovate and learn. Motivated by technology, touch, and trust, the space is not typical of a traditional bank. It’s an anomaly—sparking curiosity of what makes Truist distinct. A collection of humble spaces curated for behavior over precedence enlivens this workplace of collaboration. With ambiguous hierarchy, social-intellectual exchange is cherished, fostering growth and professionalism.

The ITC is the lens for Truist’s vision to disrupt the financial services industry.

Architect's Statement: The Innovation & Technology Center (ITC) is a catalyst for propelling a culture of innovation throughout Truist. The purpose-built space will host teammates, clients, and visitors inspiring them to collaborate in profoundly new ways that reinforce Truist’s purpose: to inspire and build better lives and communities. Agile teams from across the company will collaborate with clients and partners to research, test, and develop solutions that bring innovative technology and human touch to life to help redefine financial services and make life better for clients, teammates and communities.

The space embodies Truist’s larger vision to disrupt the financial services industry by cultivating distinctive client experiences that are rooted in empathy and driven by expertise and innovation. The same rigid conference rooms and rigid hierarchies will yield the same results that banks have had for decades. The ITC turns this all upside-down with spaces curated for behavior over results, equality over hierarchy, and innovation over efficiency.

The ITC is located on the 14th and 15th floors of Truist Center, the company’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. The space replaces what was originally a trading floor (an aging symbol of 20th Century financial services) with the beating heart of a 21st Century firm – a human-centered factory for curiosity and creativity. The design team focused on a few key building blocks to shape the experience:
• Welcome: Teammates, clients and visitors are welcomed by a barista upon entry. A tunnel-like space links the entry lobby to the transformational experience within, culminating in an interactive digital display wall that illustrates Truist’s purpose and mission. Kosher, vegan, and halal food options are provided in a casual café. Standard amenities include non-binary restrooms and a wellness suite with mother’s rooms and meditation spaces.
• Recreation: a sense of informality and play is intentionally infused in the space to promote curiosity. The unfolding landscape of collaborative zones and meeting pods most closely aligns with an urban park, featuring a diversity of vistas, platforms, treehouses, and public forums.
• Learning: the space is an accelerator for learning and collaboration, boasting a virtual reality lounge, maker space, research labs, and flexible meeting rooms equipped with various levels of technology. This variety allows teams to experiment with new creative processes and achieve outcomes that challenge the status quo.
• Connections: the design team and furniture vendor co-designed a novel modular furniture solution that enables Agile workers to reconfigure workspace in real time to accommodate hybrid team environments. Additionally, the furniture system allows for customizable panels to be added and removed, such as whiteboards, roof enclosures, metal mesh, and acoustical felt. Grand connecting stairs and social spaces like the work café allow opportunities for serendipity – teams from all departments and clients from every practice are welcome in the ITC.

The project addresses the AIA Framework for Design Excellence in the following ways:

Design for integration: The ITC integrates both purpose and concept. It is a response to an ever-evolving workplace as a preferred destination of choice while offering a thoughtful approach to embedding Truist’s vision for inspiring better lives and communities. The design is energetic, dynamic, desirable, and memorable. The design is a manifestation of consolidated disciplines leveraging strategies in architecture and engineering, interior design, brand and communications, wayfinding and signage, landscape design, urban planning, storytelling and art, and the seamless integration of innovation and technology.

Design for Water: The project includes new plumbing fixtures that ultimately reduces potable water use by 53% over the baseline.

Design for Energy: Lighting is an important element in the design concept, and in renovating this interior space, an energy-conscious system is implemented to reduce the lighting power density by 16%.

Design for Wellbeing: The ITC is the embodiment of equity for those who seek an inclusive and diverse environment. It offers healthy, comfortable, and safe choices through variety and flexibility. This acute sensitivity to different nuances is paired with the goal for biophilic design that puts people in touch with nature without compromising the technological needs for innovation. The design team worked with accessibility consultants to ensure the space was designed beyond ADA minimum requirements, taking into account not only mobility impaired but visual and hearing-impaired users. Six gender neutral restrooms, 5 flexible wellness rooms that function as mothers’ rooms and meditative spaces are provided in the design. Audio jacks have been incorporated into wayfinding to accommodate hearing-impaired users.

Design for Change: At the height of the pandemic, the project came together when people could not. its vision is to create spaces and situations where people do not have to work but want to, and the longevity of this idea also depends on the flexibility of modular, mobile pieces that can transform the interior over time as people change and the environments change.