Eaton Community Bank Administration Building

With its headquarters in Charlotte, Michigan, Eaton Community Bank provides community bank services to customers with seven offices throughout Eaton County and the surrounding areas. As part of a strategic rebrand, the bank also decided to rethink its workplace. Both the rebrand and workplace initiatives shared common goals of attracting a younger demographic and providing facilities focused on a quality “local” experience, while not losing sight of customers who have been a part of the bank and community for decades.

Using online surveys and user group interviews to gather specific data and outcomes, the IA team developed a program to understand Eaton’s current space utilization. With the information collected, IA was able to synthesize the vision, findings, and desired future state to create an optimized space program. Plan diagram test fits validated space requirements and confirmed the adjacencies of departments and staff. The redesign resulted in a 30 percent increase in employee work points, new conference and training rooms, and a central work café all within the existing building.

With a focus on the retail branch, IA developed a conceptual design prototype that was expressive of the rebrand and transformed the retail banking experience of Eaton Community Bank.