The Bank of America Trading Facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the largest, most technically advanced trading facilities in the world. The project occupies several floors of Charlotte’s Hearst Tower, also designed by SOM, and one of the challenges was to integrate the 50-foot-high, column-free trading floor program into the podium of this high-rise building as it was being constructed. The interior design team worked closely with the architects to make necessary accommodations for infrastructure.

As one of the premier American financial facilities outside of New York City, the trading arena needed to entice talent from other financial companies with a technologically performative environment where workers could spend most of their time “plugged in” with immediate access to needed resources. Offices and workstations are designed with flexibility in mind, and readily adapt to changes in population and usage. The complex also includes an auxiliary trading floor, a data center, meeting facilities, a client center, central business support facilities, and a food service area.

The new trading floor is covered by a roof of folded planes that introduce clerestory daylight on three sides. A clear glass wall supported by structural glass fins brings in light and opens the building to sky and a spectacular view of the city. The design includes motorized horizontal sliding shades to shield the north-south workstation arrangement from glare, programmed to correspond with the sun’s year-round path. On sunny days, employees prefer to have the shades up and electric lights off.