North Carolina National Bank
1965, 1989
233 Fayetteville St.
Standing
Commercial
This Brutalist building is unusual in North Carolina both for the early use of the style as well as for the polished black granite Williams employed at the exterior. This choice combines the elegant materials of the sleek corporate adaptation of the International Style with the blocky, geometric profile typical of Brutalism. Delicate glass curtain walls at the double-height first floor façade are recessed beneath the angular mass of the stone-clad building. The project won a design citation from the NC AIA in 1958. A 1989 addition is nearly seamless. Market Plaza, immediately north of the building, was Williams’s idea, and landscape architecture firm Richard Bell and Associates designed the outdoor space to complement the bank building. The plaza has been altered but some elements of the original design remain. The building is a contributing property in Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street National Register Historic District.