The 1967 Home Federal Savings and Loan Building has exceptional architectural
significance as a rare surviving and outstanding example of a small-scale, Modernist office
building from the postwar period in downtown Charlotte (Woodard and Wyatt 2000). Now
surrounded by high-rise bank towers in the center city, the seven-story Home Federal
Savings and Loan Building is a locally unusual expression of the Modern Movement that
shaped the city's commercial and institutional architecture between the 1940s and 1960s.
Modernism engendered abstract sculptural forms that expressed function while employing
new materials and technology. It reflected a postwar optimism that industrialization was
the answer to contemporary needs and aspirations. While the architecture of the Home
Federal Savings and Loan Building has these traits, it also stands in sharp contrast to the
rectangular, steel-and-glass designs that marked the city's Modernist skyscrapers. The
building's exposed, rough-surfaced concrete walls, projecting sunshades/balconies, and
connection to the landscape display Japanese-inspired elements of design unusual for
downtown Charlotte.
Home Federal Savings and Loan Building is a seven-story, concrete and glass office building
located on South Tryon Street in the heart of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The
building's Modernist influence is demonstrated in its modern materials, abstract sculptural
form, and clear expressions of function and structure. The tall, recessed first story
supported by concrete columns defines the lobby and the mezzanine, which originally
contained the savings bank offices. The upper floors have bronzed, aluminum-frame ribbon
windows expressed as sheep-shadowed penetrations of the façade. The windows are
recessed between distinctive, horizontal concrete sunshades/balconies that designate the
floors and emphasize the building's concrete construction.
While the simplicity and elegance of the design is in keeping with Modernism, it is also
evocative of traditional timber architecture of Japan. Asian architect, Kenzo Tange, first
fused traditional Japanese prototypes with Modernism in a series of Japanese government
buildings, notably the Kagawa Prefecture (1955-1959) in Takamatsu. The façade's textured
concrete, sunshades, and exposed blocks of concrete that evoke tenon construction are all
key elements of the Home Federal's design as well. Moreover, like Tange's Japanese
Modern work, the Home Federal Building is raised on columns that allow a clear
connection with the landscape. The savings bank's long, aggregate-stone planter and
distinctive water garden with a small wooden arched bridge, a fountain, and a planter, are
all consistent with traditional Japanese design (Kahn 2001: 210-212).
significance as a rare surviving and outstanding example of a small-scale, Modernist office
building from the postwar period in downtown Charlotte (Woodard and Wyatt 2000). Now
surrounded by high-rise bank towers in the center city, the seven-story Home Federal
Savings and Loan Building is a locally unusual expression of the Modern Movement that
shaped the city's commercial and institutional architecture between the 1940s and 1960s.
Modernism engendered abstract sculptural forms that expressed function while employing
new materials and technology. It reflected a postwar optimism that industrialization was
the answer to contemporary needs and aspirations. While the architecture of the Home
Federal Savings and Loan Building has these traits, it also stands in sharp contrast to the
rectangular, steel-and-glass designs that marked the city's Modernist skyscrapers. The
building's exposed, rough-surfaced concrete walls, projecting sunshades/balconies, and
connection to the landscape display Japanese-inspired elements of design unusual for
downtown Charlotte.
Home Federal Savings and Loan Building is a seven-story, concrete and glass office building
located on South Tryon Street in the heart of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The
building's Modernist influence is demonstrated in its modern materials, abstract sculptural
form, and clear expressions of function and structure. The tall, recessed first story
supported by concrete columns defines the lobby and the mezzanine, which originally
contained the savings bank offices. The upper floors have bronzed, aluminum-frame ribbon
windows expressed as sheep-shadowed penetrations of the façade. The windows are
recessed between distinctive, horizontal concrete sunshades/balconies that designate the
floors and emphasize the building's concrete construction.
While the simplicity and elegance of the design is in keeping with Modernism, it is also
evocative of traditional timber architecture of Japan. Asian architect, Kenzo Tange, first
fused traditional Japanese prototypes with Modernism in a series of Japanese government
buildings, notably the Kagawa Prefecture (1955-1959) in Takamatsu. The façade's textured
concrete, sunshades, and exposed blocks of concrete that evoke tenon construction are all
key elements of the Home Federal's design as well. Moreover, like Tange's Japanese
Modern work, the Home Federal Building is raised on columns that allow a clear
connection with the landscape. The savings bank's long, aggregate-stone planter and
distinctive water garden with a small wooden arched bridge, a fountain, and a planter, are
all consistent with traditional Japanese design (Kahn 2001: 210-212).
