Are bank interiors a good place to experiment with innovative design? Depends on who you are.

Washington Mutual's "Occasio" redesign, which moved tellers into the center of the room in "teller pods," dotted the place with freestanding ATMs and slathered the interiors with pop-py earth tones reminiscent of a Starbucks, is getting the ax. New WaMu owner JP Morgan Chase is spending around a billion bucks to tear up all 900 Occasio branches, replacing them with the familiar tellers-in-bulletproof-glass set-up.

"Customers want knowledgeable friendly bankers in an environment that's convenient and reassuring," says Tom Kelly, a Chase spokesman. "Customers aren't interested in lingering; they want to do their business and go."

Nevertheless, at least one bank is sticking with a radical design departure from the norm (as seen below):

...Some banks have pushed unconventional branch design even further--so far that actual transactions aren't even possible; the sole goal is relationship building. ING Direct is an online bank, but management realized the bank needed some physical presence to reassure the public the bank was more than a billboard. So execs devised the ING cafe, which look like Starbucks; people can go have coffee, smoothies, use a free wireless connection, and learn about ING if they choose. But the eight "branches" have no transactional ability whatsoever; people still must sign up and do transactions online. For example, the ING cafe in Chicago had "Bike to Work Week Specials" in mid-June. "Every bicyclist that rides to the ING DIRECT Cafe during Bike to Work Week will be treated to a free bike valet, beverage and tune up. While you're there, ask a Cafe Associate about other simple ways to save your money."

via american banker