When Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company opened a branch location in 1954 at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street in Manhattan, it ushered in a bold new era of bank architecture. While other financial institutions had started to peel back the industry’s heavy masonry walls, the design by SOM dematerialized them. Its transparent façades, vast luminous ceilings, and street-level vault opened up a long cloistered world.

From 2010 to 2012, SOM renovated 510 Fifth Avenue to adapt the buil...