Bankers First

The President of Banker's First needed more space for his growing bank.  At the same time, as President of Augusta Tomorrow, he saw a need for revitalization of the city's downtown area.  Therefore, he conceived a plan that would help Banker's First and Augusta.  As part of the bank's expansion, he purchased the rest of the city block on which the bank was located.  This purchase included an old run down YMCA building and several historical old storefronts on Broad Street.

His next step was to find a landscape architectural firm that would help create and direct his goals.  Our firm was chosen to design an ambient and passive courtyard between these buildings for two purposes.

First:  Enhance the image, beauty and general appearance of the bank for business attraction.

Second:  Create a courtyard, streetscape and parking lot that would influence future growth in the downtown area.

This courtyard would be in a relatively small area consisting of all remaining open space between the buildings on tow blocks of downtown Augusta.  The design had to relate to the bank, a health club, a future restaurant, business offices and Broad Street shopping.  The courtyard needed to be in a human scale, visible from within the health club, and accessible from the restaurant, and tie to Broad Street.  It had to be a welcome place to relax from the street, during lunch, before and after meals at the restaurant and after use of the health club.  It also had to be impressive enough to act as a catalyst and model for influencing the development of other open spaces between buildings in the city's downtown.