THE ARCHITECTURE OF ACCESSIBILITY: In the 20th century, banks used sophisticated modern design to signal transparency and openness.

For all the caprices of architects, common sense tends to prevail when it comes to the design of buildings that have a specific task to carry out. A contributor to a 1945 Architectural Record survey of banking construction described the shift this way: "Gone is the day when a big-city bank might confine itself to depositors able to carry a thousand-dollar minimum, and when a customer who had an appointment with a vice-president went out first to buy a new hat.". [Extracted from the article]

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