Commissioned as the first branch of Coachella Valley Savings and Loan, this 1956 building marked E. Stewart Williams' first bank commission and the opening move in what would become a three-block concentration of mid-century financial architecture along South Palm Canyon Drive. The demanding program, squeezed onto a small lot on the west side of the street, required reception areas, teller stations, offices, conference rooms, a lunch room, two vaults, and parking. The institution outgrew the building within six years, prompting the commission for Coachella Valley Savings No. 2 a few blocks south in 1960.
Williams solved the spatial constraints with a disciplined post-and-beam vocabulary, careful daylighting, and his characteristic natural wood built-in cabinets and credenzas. The design established a template he would refine at Santa Fe Federal and then break open at Coachella Valley Savings No. 2, where he moved past post-and-beam into expressive structural concrete that won a creativity award from the Portland Cement Association.
