Santa Fe Federal Savings opened in 1960 on South Palm Canyon Drive, one of four modern banks built within three blocks between 1956 and 1960. The cluster created a genuine downtown financial district in what had been primarily a resort town with a modest permanent population, physical evidence of postwar savings-and-loan expansion and a resort economy converting into a more stable year-round one. Williams, Williams & Williams designed the building for Santa Fe Federal Savings and Loan during a period when financial institutions were commissioning modern architecture as symbols of stability and progress.
The building is a rectilinear glass-and-steel pavilion that appears to float above the ground, an effect achieved through a recessed foundation and a cantilevered floor slab that allows the ground plane to run uninterrupted beneath the building's edge. Deep overhangs shelter the fully glazed walls, and the banking hall is entirely column-free. The design works in the crisp, restrained mode that distinguishes Williams from the structural exhibitionism of Albert Frey or the theatrical gestures of John Porter Clark and William Cody. Julius Shulman photographed the completed building, including a well-known image with Williams himself seated in the frame.
