There are Swiss private banks, and then there are Swiss private banks. And Lombard Odier, which traces its lineage back through two august Genevois institutions that joined forces in 2002, is among the most pedigreed of them all. The antecedents of the modern business were founded in 1796 and 1876; several of the present-day partners in the business have ties to the original founding families.
So the symbolism and significance of the decision to uproot more than 2,000 Geneva-based staff from their offices in the city – some of them beautiful, historic buildings that had been owned by the company for many years – and relocate them out of town, in a completely new premises, should not be underestimated.
As you would expect of an institution like this – which is trusted by its clients to look after CHF211 billion in assets – the location of its new home was not selected by accident. The piece of former agricultural land that Lombard Odier’s headquarters now occupies – 6km north of its previous headquarters, on the western edge of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) – is preternaturally well connected. As well as being just six minutes’ drive from the airport, it is on the doorstep of a train station that whisks passengers into town in 12 minutes, next to the highway and also a newly approved ferry route that will carry passengers from Corsier.
It’s not hard to see why another internationally renowned Swiss business, Richemont, chose the same area, Bellevue, for its own new headquarters when it relocated in 2006. The aspect lives up to the municipality’s name; right next to the lake, with unobscured views of the Alps and Mont Blanc. For the building itself, Lombard Odier ran a tender process in which eight firms participated. The eventual winner was Basel-based architects Herzog & de Meuron, one of the premier names in the industry, known for projects such as Tate Modern and Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium. But this would be its first ever building in French-speaking Switzerland.
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Early on in the process, at a meeting between the bankers and the architects, Lombard Odier managing partner Frédéric Rochat says he expected the conversation to revolve around ‘square metres, density and floor space’. Instead, ‘it ended up very quickly in a philosophical discussion. The question that Herzog & de Meuron asked us was, “Can you tell us more about what it means to be a bank in the 21st century?”’
‘Is a bank still somewhere its clients keep their money?,’ the architects wondered. ‘Should we build a fortress with thick walls and small windows? Or isn’t a bank in the 21st century much more about expertise and value-add for clients?’ This developed into an ambition to expose the bank’s expertise, Rochat says, and to create a structure that encouraged fluidity, movement and collaboration.
According to Pierre de Meuron, these early philosophical conversations, combined with an understanding of the physical site, allowed him and his team to establish ‘a form’ for the building. Rather than evoke a traditional thick-walled bank vault, it is ‘a millefeuille’, designed to ‘maximise the perception of le Grand Paysage’. Transparent and open, it allows light to enter and its inhabitants to move.
However, perhaps the most striking element of the design is what Christine Binswanger, the Herzog & de Meuron partner most closely involved with the project, describes in English as a ‘cut’ or ‘light hole’ in the roof. It has a more pleasing name in French: ‘fente de lumière’. A vast elliptical skylight that hovers above the atrium, creating the impression of a canyon that allows natural light to reach far within the building. The atrium, encased by glass-walled offices, is intended to allow the principle of ‘openness’ to translate into the building’s interior, too.
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Later this year, once all the bank’s Geneva-based staff have moved from its six offices in the city to this single location, the building will start to live up to its official name: ‘1Roof’. Although Lombard Odier has a flexible policy that allows staff to work up to two days per week away from the office (depending on what team they are in), the building – which is 117m long, 70m wide and has an internal area of 60,000 sq m – has capacity for 2,600 people. It seems like a clear sign that further growth is on the agenda. As recently as 1999, this bank with 229 years of history had 1,000 employees; globally, it now has 3,000.
As one would expect, environmental sustainability has been considered. The bank hopes it will achieve the highest level in three widely recognised sustainable construction certifications, including BREEAM. Among several energy-saving measures, the building will be connected to the GeniLac system, which uses the water of Lake Geneva to heat and cool buildings. Many of the chairs have also been repurposed from the bank’s old offices – something that may gratify some of its more parsimonious clients. There are parking spaces for 444 bikes and electric charging points.
The parts of the buildings with the best views – the vista of the lake and Mont Blanc – have been reserved for communal areas (such as the 500-cover restaurant and an open-plan room for informal internal meetings and catch-ups, pictured on p56) and client meeting rooms. ‘We had a lot of discussions about the kind of experience we wanted to give to our clients,’ says Rochat. ‘We operate in a very competitive environment, and we believe in stressing our differences. One of these differences is that we are an important bank, but we are not the largest bank.’
One of the key considerations, therefore, was to create an environment in which clients would not feel as if they are entering some vast corporate workspace, but rather somewhere they can feel ‘at home’. This element of the project was handled by Paris-based interior designer Rodolphe Parente, whose CV includes work for Piaget and Armani Privé.
Clients will enter the building through a grand, modern security door with a pillar that bears one of the few instances of overt branding anywhere in the building – eight large bronze-coloured ‘fleurons’, the bank’s compass-like logo. Once inside, they will find themselves in a lobby that is deliberately much darker than the rest of the building, but warmly lit. Then they will progress to the homely client meeting rooms with comfortable soft furnishings, natural clay walls, original artworks and, of course, that spectacular view.
Despite the huge windows, the rooms are private, quiet and the ideal setting for what the bank’s chief branding officer Fabio Mancone describes as ‘our privileged field of operation’: working closely with entrepreneurs and ‘big families’. Sitting in one of the client meeting rooms, Mancone, who has held senior roles at Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani, says that ‘the role of the banker is becoming more and more like an adviser; someone who is really there at every moment of their life.’
‘What we try to become, more and more, is that person of confidence and trust who is next to them in every step of their operation. It can be the [sale] of their companies, accession, divorces. Whatever happens, you have to be there to advise. I think that’s really the expectation at the highest level.’
Parente agrees. The details have been chosen to give clients a sense of care. ‘And when you are in this condition, you can approach intimacy,’ he adds. ‘It’s so important to close the door, leave everything outside, and be connected with your banker.’
