The Swiss private bank is hosting an invitation-based contest for architects to submit ideas for a new global headquarters, putting together staff from a current mix of six offices in the Alpine state.

Lombard Odier is inviting architects to design a new headquarters on a 27,400 square-metre site in the Bellevue area of Geneva in a bid to put all its staff under one roof. The building will be complete by 2021/2022.

The 200-year-old private bank’s new premises will host up to 2,600 workspaces, expanding from the 1,900 workspaces Lombard Odier has in six sites in Geneva and Lancy, it said in a statement yesterday. 

“Symbolising the bank of tomorrow with its resolutely contemporary architecture, this new building will offer a work environment which promotes exchange, innovation and performance,” Patrick Odier, Senior Managing Partner of Lombard Odier, said.

The firm is inviting architects across the world from this June to submit plans for the HQ and the winning entry will be unveiled at the end of 2017. Lombard Odier is also renovating its historic premises in Corraterie, and retain it for receptions and various events.

The move in some ways symbolises how the firm has had to modernise as its size has expanded. Along with fellow Geneva-based private banks Pictet and Mirabaud, it abandoned its old unlimited liability family ownership structure a few years’ ago.

Construction is expected to start in early 2019 and finish by the end of 2021.