The sites for Columbia Savings and Loan are located on the south side of Wilshire Boulevard several blocks away from one another in Beverly Hills, California. The program called for two speculative office buildings and a headquarters building for the savings and loan. The headquarters building was ultimately located on the center site with the two office buildings on blocks to the east and west.
The context of Wilshire Boulevard, a major traffic corridor, became the predominant influence on the design. Unique in their multiplicity, and in contrast with the surrounding architecture, Columbia Savings & Loan, create a contemporary landmark while maintaining the rhythm of the existing urban texture. The buildings were conceived as a trilogy, each with its own character, but forming a unified concept.
Coloration, scale and composition vary but the architectural elements are consistent from building to building, to form a recognizable whole. The facades are made up of a set of planes organized on an expressed structural frame.
The primary plane, a limestone wall, appears as if it might slide from building to building. The whole has been separated into fragments to be visually reconnected while driving by them.