How to Build a Credit Union
Are You Looking to Build a Credit Union?
Starting a financial project is a process we’ve guided countless clients through. And it’s just as relevant and realistic a venture today as it has been in the past, for both new and existing organizations. One of the most important decisions that goes into starting a credit union project is its location. As an architecture firm with thousands of financial projects under our belt, we are experts at choosing successful credit union locations.
When clients come to us wanting to start a credit union project, they’re not expected to know everything there is to know about their financial industry. That’s our job. With EvoBank® (the evolving-bank process), we maintain industry expertise within the financial industry. Our knowledge base goes far beyond architecture, also focusing on emerging trends, technology and larger themes throughout the industry. We ask that our clients bring their vision, their business goals and initiatives and their culture details to meld with our industry expertise during the inVision phase.
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Long before anything goes into design or concepts, we take stock of the project through our inVision process. During inVision, Programming and Feasibility Study, we uncover a complete picture of your project. Here, we determine all the “pieces of the puzzle” that will go into your financial project and determine how they will all work with each other.
Site selection is critical to the success of a credit union. During inVision, Site Selection Studies, we use a 9-point mathematical model to determine the best site for your financial project. For credit unions, location truly is everything.
Finally, inVision, Site and Building Assessments includes a complete assessment of the selected site and/or existing building. At the end of inVision, we provide our clients with a project scope complete with a conceptual design, schedule and budget. Often times, our financial clients share how much our inVision process helped bring their project idea to life.
Credit Union Architecture and inVision
Co-Branding
One of our growing specializations is designing Co-Branding spaces within a financial institution that could occur for new construction, remodeling and tenant improvements. Co-branding projects are intentionally designed to have various businesses sharing space and functioning together to create brand awareness for visitors. Co-branding is a modern and innovative way to draw non-customer traffic into your credit union. We have a few co-branding success stories to our name, and it’s something we’d love to help more clients achieve. We believe co-branding is the future of banking.
Credit Union Design
Credit Union Design Makes a Difference
Our approach to credit union design goes beyond what the space needs to do and delves into how the space can be best utilized. We do this in terms of the credit union’s convenience for their customers and the role the credit union can serve within its community. By designing a credit union with customer convenience in mind, we can shift the experience from one of necessity to one of relationship-based.
Efficiency, Convenience, and Functionality
We design warm, welcoming credit union environments while applying financial services planning expertise to improve operational efficiency and reduce long-term cost. Through new construction, renovations, or tenant improvements, we can optimize workflows and right-size staffing, helping institutions meet client needs with fewer full-time roles over time. That can mean avoiding a backfill after a retirement or reducing projected hires, creating meaningful lifecycle savings across the branch network.
We Do It All.
Our credit union interior design services deliver a complete, brand-forward package, from durable materials and finishes to coordinated furniture, fixtures, artwork, and merchandising displays, plus long-lasting carpet and tile selection. Your branch interior is a direct expression of your credit union brand and culture, shaping first impressions, improving the customer experience, and supporting employee attraction and retention.
Making Credit Union Interior Design Work
Blending the interior design within a credit union’s floorplan is essential. Whether a project is new construction, remodeling or a tenant improvement, we know during the design phases to account for essential interior design elements that will eventually fill the space. Part of what we look for when we’re listening to our clients and asking about their vision for their credit union is to uncover elements of their brand and culture that can be built into the image of their space.
Credit Union Architecture
Our Area of Expertise
We have thousands of financial institutions in our portfolio, and while banking might look different today than it did even five or ten years ago, the value of credit unions and the role they play within communities is as strong as ever.
inVision, Programming and Feasibility Studies were specifically created for our community credit unions. It was a way for them to establish the Scope of the Project before committing to full architectural and engineering services.
Through inVision, Programming and Feasibility Study, we focus on listening to our clients and uncovering how we can best help them. You see, there’s no single answer for what the right approach to credit union architecture is, but once we hear our clients and combine what they bring to the table with what we bring to the table, the results tend to speak for themselves.
Working Hand in Hand
Once all of the Research and Planning, Programming and Feasibility Study and Architecture and Engineering drawings are complete, the project can go out for bidding and permitting. By using our project management services, we will help our clients select a local General Contractor. We work hand in hand with our client, the contractors and vendors responsible for all elements of credit union construction.
New or Remodel?
Whether your project is new construction, a remodel of an existing space or a tenant improvement, we will work with you throughout every step. We will not only design a space or a building, we will also coordinate the furniture, signage, banking equipment, city processes, contractors, etc. This allows you to continue spending your time running your credit union while we take care of the project needs.
Our goal is always to serve the client and listen to them, and we stay right by their side, handling the various needs that can arise throughout the project and ensuring the design we put together is executed.
There are unique differentiators within your brand, your story, your community, and your vision. Those differentiators, combined with our experience and expertise, can create partnerships beyond buildings.