Royal Bank of Scotland
Stamford, CT

Stamford is gaining on nearby Wall Street as a standalone financial center. With multiple international banking and smaller advising firms already operating out of southern New England, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), one of Britain’s largest international banking firms, now calls the New York metropolitan area its stateside home.

The building’s exterior facade expresses a horizontal profile with curvilinear glass planes divided by bands of terracotta tiles. The fishhook shaped structure’s longest continuous facade faces south towards Stamford Harbor. Other views from the 300,000 square feet facade encompass panoramas of sprawling Fairfield County. The sixth-floor accommodates 1,000 traders on a centralized trading floor, which at the time of construction was the largest in the world. The 100,000 square foot trading area is skinned on two sides by floor-to-ceiling glass walls with integral operable sunshades that total nearly 13,000 square feet of long-span curtainwall. A six-story tall, 4,347 square foot glazed atrium with integral sunshades sits atop the bottom half of the structure, where the west elevation incorporates 16 inch louvers.

The eighth-floor includes restaurants, a coffee shop, health club, dry-cleaners and newsstand, and leads to a one-acre landscaped roof garden with views of the river below. The office penthouse includes another curtainwall design of more than 15,000 square feet, and a glazed canopy of nearly 20,000 square feet.

The $400 million project is situated west of Washington Boulevard, and remains highly visible from Interstate 95. The building’s capacity provides office space for up to 3,000 employees.