Wenceslao Sarmiento

Phoenix Financial Center
Souper Salad restaurant in former bank branch, Phoenix, Arizona

Wenceslao Alfonso Sarmiento (September 22, 1922[1] – 24 November 2013[2]), also known as W.A. Sarmiento is a Peruvian-born American modernist architect.[3]

Sarmiento studied in various locations in South America, for eighteen months in the office of Oscar Niemeyer, before coming to the United States. He served as the head designer for the Bank Building Corporation of America from 1951 through 1961, after which he founded his own sixty-person Sarmiento Associates office based in St. Louis, Missouri. He retired in 1980.

Sarmiento designed hundreds of banks and other buildings in the postwar years of bank modernization in downtowns, and the construction of new suburban bank towers. His larger work appears as crisp International Style with a visible influence from Niemeyer, perhaps most obvious in his largest project, the 1968 Phoenix Financial Center on Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona. The smaller branch banks tend to be more playful, eye-catching, Googie projects.

Sarmiento lived in Santa Monica, California and was still active in the preservation of his buildings until his death in 2013.

Phoenix Financial Center 1964-1968

Major works

  • Pioneer Savings Bank Building, on Wilshire Boulevard (3245 Wilshire Boulevard, at northeast corner of New Hampshire St., opposite I. Magnin building), Los Angeles, 1953 (now Consulate General of the Republic of Korea)
  • First Security Bank Building, Salt Lake City, 1955 (now Ken Garff Building) (listed on the National Register of Historic Places)
  • Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Building, California, 1956
  • Great Western Savings Bank, Panorama City, California, 1957 (now LA Furniture Center)
  • Crenshaw Savings & Lone, Los Angeles, California 1958 (now Chase Bank
  • Firestone Bank, Akron, Ohio, 1958 (now Verge Building)[4]
  • Glendale Federal Savings and Loan, Glendale, California, 1959 (now Hollywood Production Center)
  • Liberty National Bank & Trust Building, Louisville, Kentucky, 1960 (now Chase Bank)
  • Security Federal Savings & Loan, (Skyline Building) St. Petersburg, Florida, 1961[5]
  • Salinas Valley Savings & Lone, Salinas, California, 1962 (now Chase Bank)
  • Salinas Valley Savings & Lone, San Jose, California,1962 (now Chase Bank)
  • Newport Balboa Savings, Newport Beach, California, 1963 (Demolished)
  • Chancery Building, on the grounds of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, circa 1965
  • Phoenix Financial Center, Phoenix, Arizona, 1964-1968
  • Tucson Western Savings at El Con, Tucson, Arizona, 1972 (now Bank of America)
  • Western Savings at Metrocenter, Phoenix, Arizona, 1974 (now Souper Salad)
  • American Automobile Association building, St. Louis, Missouri, 1977[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD)". washington.edu. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
  2. ↑ Nichols, Chris (2 December 2013). "Mid Century Master Architect W.A. Sarmiento Dies At 91". Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  3. ↑ Hess, Alan (2004). Googie Redux: Ultramodern Roadside Architecture. Chronicle Books. p. 58.
  4. ↑ "Ohio Mid-Century Modern Banks | RoadsideArchitecture.com". www.roadarch.com. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  5. ↑ "Florida Mid-Century Modern Banks | RoadsideArchitecture.com". www.roadarch.com. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  6. ↑ "Missouri Mid-Century Modern Office Buildings | RoadsideArchitecture.com". www.roadarch.com. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
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