Bremer Bank has a long and proud history of serving communities in the Upper Midwest throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. In an effort to reimagine the banking experience and serve customers in new, innovative ways, Bremer worked with Snow Kreilich to develop the Bremer Bank Playbook. This playbook includes a set of design standards that focus on strengthening customer relationships and reflect Bremer’s purpose of cultivating thriving communities.
Bremer Bank Fargo, one of the first branches to incorporate design elements from the playbook, is a comprehensive renovation of the client’s existing 30,000-square-foot building. With a primary focus on interiors, the design team began by re-orienting the branch’s customer area from a central axis point to a more expansive space along the building’s southern bay, where daylight plays a crucial role in the customer experience. The first and second floors are now connected by three full-bay floor openings, lending the larger interior more fluidity and flexibility. New double-height wood screen walls are installed on the northern edge of these floor openings, infusing the interior with warm natural elements that recall the vegetative shelter belts that cover much of North Dakota’s landscape. A centrally located staircase and elevator provide efficient access to the entire building for both customers and employees.
To create an even more inviting customer experience, the bank’s traditional teller lines were replaced with an open plaza featuring multiple points of interaction, including “partner tables” for improved service and private meeting spaces. Directly above the first-floor greeting area, where bank employees work and convene, is an array of public and semi-private meeting spaces and workstations with demountable wall systems dispersed throughout. This whole area maintains visual connections to the customer plaza below.
