Oklahoma bank is among pioneers of mass timber construction

Customers struck by the grand beauty of the wood architecture at First United Bank of Moore probably don't realize just how cool it really is — "cool" as in meant to take on global warming and climate change with sustainable design .

"They don't know," said Melissa Perrin , executive vice president and chief culture officer for the Durant-based bank.

The same goes for customers at First United branches in Shawnee, as well as Sherman, Texas; Plano, Texas; and Fredericksburg, Texas.

Most people, Perrin said, just think the timber is pretty because what makes it innovative is hidden in plain sight: mass timber construction , a low-carbon alternative to concrete and steel.

In the bank's case, that meant using beams made of glued laminated timber, called glulam , an engineered wood product, and cross-laminated timber , large prefabricated, engineered wood panels, up to 10 feet wide, 60 feet long and 20 inches thick.

First United , with 80 branches and mortgage offices in Oklahoma and Texas, prompted the Dallas office of global architecture firm Gensler , the largest architecture firm in the world, based in San Francisco, to embrace the innovation in 2018, first with its new branch in Fredericksburg, then others.

Mass timber architecture fits with the sustainability goals for new Oklahoma and Texas branches of First United Bank in Durant, OK

The two-story, 43,000-square-foot branch in Moore, at 420 SW 6, was built in 2022, with Oklahoma City's Lippert Bros. Inc. as general contractor, and was a stop on the 2024 OKC-area Architecture Tour . The exposed southern yellow pine is "stunning," as described by the tour organizer, the American Institute of Architects-Central Oklahoma Chapter .

"The building creates a welcoming space that supports the comfort and well-being of all occupants, all the while being sustainable and timeless. These design goals help the building embody one of First United Bank’s key values of serving the community," the tour pamphlet said.

First United didn't ask Gensler to use mass timber, but the firm's Taylor Coleman said the bank did have specific goals: "Create something that is timeless, is a market differentiator and that would have sustainability integrated in every aspect of the project."

Writing on Gensler's blog , Coleman noted that First United didn’t ask for traditional green certifications like LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design , the leading green building rating system.

"Instead, they wanted the building itself to integrate and showcase sustainable strategies — all with the intention to inspire and display how these principles could be replicated in their clients’ lives," Coleman wrote. "As our team began designing solutions to these challenges, we quickly turned away from traditional ways of thinking and began embracing unknown challenges, including the idea of using mass timber.

"When we presented the idea of mass timber to First United Bank, the inherent beauty, renewable aspect, and uniqueness of the system resonated with them and their vision. Emboldened by the positive response, we discovered the structural solutions that mass timber offered and were able to achieve the vision shared with the client."

The aim, in a time when most personal banking is online, was to create a beautiful space that people "want to be in," with a warm, welcome, homey vibe, while "doing the right thing for the environment," Perrin said.

First United Bank in Durant, Oklahoma, on new branches in Oklahoma and Texas: Besides sustainability, 'We really like the look of the mass timber'

First United, with $16 billion in assets, is just big enough to be counted with medium-sized banks, which have between $15 billion and $115 billion, according to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency . The bank's decision to go with mass timber put it in rarefied air as one of a relative few commercial users of the still-new approach to building.

Gensler showcased First United Bank of Moore on a panel at the recent annual conference of the National Association of Real Estate Editors, in Austin, Texas: "The Wooden Skyscraper: Mass Timber Construction and Innovative Carbon Capture."

Also on the panel was a representative of Houston-based Hines , which was the development manager for glassy, not wooden, Devon Energy Center and BOK Park Plaza on W Sheridan Avenue in downtown OKC, among other structures. Hines started mass timber construction in 2016 and has 27 projects in design, under construction or completed.

Houston's Kirksey Architecture , also represented on the panel, has designed 13 mass timber projects , many in higher education. Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. in suburban Houston is working on one mass timber office building .

Smallish First United Bank took a "leap of faith" with mass timber construction because it doesn't often pay for itself, Coleman wrote.

"The benefits of mass timber are historically overruled by the higher upfront cost, uncertainty and lack of experience from an estimating team. This results in mass timber projects often stopping before they can get started," he wrote.

Perrin said it's worth it.

"Our hope was that, as we were building new buildings, that it represented our values that we have as a company," she said: faith, family, learning, service, integrity and high performance.

Plus, she said, "We really like the look of the mass timber."

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Senior Business Writer Richard Mize has covered housing, construction, commercial real estate and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com since 1999. Contact him at rmize@oklahoman.com. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Real Estate with Richard Mize . You can support Richard's work, and that of his colleagues, by purchasing a digital subscription to The Oklahoman. Right now, you can get 6 months of subscriber-only access for $1 .

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma bank is among pioneers of mass timber construction