Sogebank is the largest Haitian-owned commercial bank in Haiti. The devastating 2010 earthquake severely damaged Sogebank’s modern headquarters located on Port-au-Prince’s major commercial thoroughfare. The building had to be abandoned for repair. Seated atop a hill overlooking Port-au-Prince the building has a commanding presence in Port-au-Prince and its abandonment symbolized the hopelessness so many felt in Haiti following the terrible tragedy. It’s rebuilding and re-furnishing syboloized more than just the re-opening a a business establishment. It provided hope to the people of Port-au-Prince that indeed the dark days were coming to an end.
Sogebank turned to Teknion of Canada Toronto Ontario Canada and T4 logistics of Bethesda Maryland to undertake the challenging re-furnishing of this symbolic contemporary edifice. The architect for the project Mr. George Lescrot intended to replace the closed in feeling of the building from the old dry walls of the original structure with glass walls everywhere to create a transparent and open environment which could take full advantage of the dramatic vistas offered by the Sogebank building. The Teknion Altos collection offered the tempered glass walls sought and envisioned by the architect. To get the glass to 80 undamaged, Teknion devised a new packing method specifically for international freight. It was a success. None of the glass pieces for the glass walls were damaged during the ocean journey. Using Haitian, laborers supervise by T fours senior technician the walls went up quickly and easily. Glass walls do require a degree of precision to be installed correctly. The glass walls have to be tempered. Many were injured by falling glass during the devastating earthquake of 2010.
Additionally Sogebank shows the state-of-the-art DISTRICT modular furniture collection as well. With its retro design and linear composition, the District collection from Teknion offers a blend of privacy with openness afforded by the storage based designs of the district collection. Sogebank’s open space was filled with 4 to 6 person workstation clusters. The private offices were enclosed with full glass walls and glass sliding doors. The conference rooms used glass walls and glass sliding door since safety was a key element and requirement the all those collection with its tempered glass walls met this critical criteria. The private offices Teknion’s contemporary expansion case goods line. The seating included Teknion’s Contessa chairs for the private offices the elegant and contemporary Mariani seating, the mesh-based Visio chair for the staff, T3 chair for the tellers, and the Fitz chair for other staff. The result was a combination of elegant low modular workstations and an open dramatic and transparent were all could enjoy the dramatic vistas of Port-au-Prince along with the feeling of an open and transparent institution where management and staff were bound together for the rebuilding of a new Haiti. The furniture, the glass, and the environment the two created represented a new beginning for Sogebank which in turn symbolize the new beginning for Haiti.
