Wenceslao Alfonso Sarmiento (September 28, 1922 – 24 November 2013), also known as W.A. Sarmiento, was a

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

vian-born American

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Sarmiento studied in various locations in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

, for eighteen months in the office of

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...

, before coming to the United States. In 1951 while visiting his sister-in-law in Missouri he rear ended an architect who worked for the St. Louis based Bank Building & Equipment Corporation of America. He was hired soon after and served as the head designer for the corporation from 1951 through 1961, after which he founded his own sixty-person Sarmiento Associates office based in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. He relocated to Santa Monica California in the 1970s. He retired in 1980. Sarmiento designed hundreds of banks and other buildings in the postwar years of bank modernization in downtowns, and the construction of new suburban bank towers. His larger work appears as crisp International Style with a visible influence from Niemeyer, perhaps most obvious in his largest project, the 1968

Phoenix Financial Center The Phoenix Financial Center consists of a high-rise office building and two adjacent rotunda buildings located along Central Avenue in the Midtown district of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. They were built in 1963 by the Financial Corporati ...

on Central Avenue in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...

. The smaller branch banks tend to be more playful, eye-catching,

Googie Googie architecture ( ) is a type of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Atomic Age and the Space Age. It originated in Southern California from the Streamline Moderne architecture of the 1930s, and was popular in the ...

projects. Sarmiento lived in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

and was still active in the preservation of his buildings until his death in 2013.

Major works

Phoenix-Western Savings and Loan Building-1975-1

* Central Bank of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras (1952) *Pioneer Savings Bank Building, 3245 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California (1953) - Now Consulate General of the Republic of Korea. *Newport Balboa Savings, 3366 Via Lido, Newport Beach California, (1954) - Significantly altered. * First Security Bank Building, 405 S. Main Street, Salt Lake City, Utah (1955) - Now Ken Garff Building, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. *American Investment Co. of Illinois, 8251 Maryland Avenue, Clayton Missouri (1955) *Hibernia National Bank, New Orleans, Louisiana (1955) *Jefferson Bank and Trust Building, 2600 Washington Avenue, St. Louis Missouri (1956) * Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Building, 225 E. Broadway, Glendale California (1956) - Now Hollywood Production Center. * Bank Building & Equipment Corporation of America Headquarters, 1130 Hampton Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri (1957) - Now Salvation Army Midland Division. *Great Western Savings Bank, 8201 Van Nuys Boulevard, Panorama City, California, (1957) - Now LA Furniture Center. *Crenshaw Savings & Loan, 4401 Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles, California (1958) - now Chase Bank) *Firestone Bank, 1115 S. Main Street, Akron, Ohio (1958) - Now Verge Building. * Glendale Federal Savings and Loan, 401 N. Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California (1959) - Now Hollywood Production Center. *Liberty National Bank & Trust Building, 416 W. Jefferson Street, Louisville, Kentucky (1960) - Now Chase Bank. *Security Federal Savings & Loan, (Skyline Building) 2600 Dr. M.L.K. Jr. N. Street, St. Petersburg, Florida (1961) *Salinas Valley Savings & Loan, 425 Main Street, Salinas, California (1962) - Now Chase Bank. *Salinas Valley Savings & Loan, 1725 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, California (1962) - Now Chase Bank. *Newport Balboa Savings Headquarters Building, 3366 Via Lido, Newport Beach, California (1963) - Significantly altered. *

, 3443 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona (1964-1968) * Chancery Building, on the grounds of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 4445 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis Missouri (circa 1965) *Ozarks Federal Savings, 2 E. Columbia Street, Farmington, Missouri (1970) *Clayton Federal Savings and Loan, 135 N Meramec Avenue, Clayton, Missouri (1970) - Now Midwest Regional Bank. *First National Bank and Trust Building, 233 S 13th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska (1970) - In association with Russell McCaleb. Now US Bank Tower. *Lemay Bank and Trust Co. 2568 Telegraph Road, St. Louis, Missouri (1972) - Demolished. * Western Savings at El Con, 3480 E. Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona (1972) Now Bank of America. *Western Savings at Metrocenter, 10005 Metro Parkway N., Phoenix, Arizona (1974) - Now Tombstone Tactical. *Lemay Bank and Trust Co. 5575 Telegraph Road, St. Louis, Missouri (1976) - Now Midwest BankCentre *American Automobile Association Building, 3940 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri (1977)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarmiento, Wenceslaus 1922 births 2013 deaths Peruvian architects 20th-century American architects Peruvian emigrants to the United States Googie architecture Architects from St. Louis Modernist architects Modernist architecture