National Bank of Commerce Building (now Union Bank Place)

The National Bank of Commerce commissioned its headquarters from I. M. Pei & Partners, with James Ingo Freed as lead designer. Planning began in June 1972, construction in September 1973, and the building was completed in May 1976. That year it won a design award from the Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute.

First known as the NBC Bank Center, the building later became the Wells Fargo Center. Union Bank & Trust then moved its downtown branch there and renamed it Union Bank Place. Led by Sinclair Hille Architects, the remodel set out to keep the original interior architecture and the space's first purpose, a room meant to welcome the public; its grand opening took place in August 2023.

The site is a narrow strip, 300 by 75 feet (about 91 by 23 metres), at the main crossroads of downtown. Lincoln's streets are so wide that an outdoor plaza would have left a void at the very corner where activity was meant to be, so the building holds the intersection of O and 13th streets and runs the full length of the block. On the south side the entrance juts out over the sidewalk, carried by a massive 12-foot transfer beam, and so forms a 60-foot-high (18-metre) "porch", scaled to the neighbouring buildings and both inside and outside. The porch leads to a planted courtyard intended for exhibitions and community events, from which one walks straight into the open-span banking hall. Along the sidewalk, an unbroken band of butt-jointed glass shows the activity inside.

The building is made of board-formed architectural concrete, cast in place in quick successive pours so that its tone would not vary. Its form recalls the shape of Nebraska, and its 93 windows are linked with the state's 93 counties. The remodel completed in 2023 left the concrete features of the original lobby untouched and kept its tree, now surrounded by new plants; in the atrium upstairs, a board room overlooks the banking lobby, the coffee shop and the community areas.

Union Bank & Trust runs a full-service branch and a small-business hub there, with a multipurpose meeting room and a pop-up shop space; a coffee shop, Stories Coffee Co., is also on site. The upper floors hold offices.

The lobby, with the branch and the café, is open to the public at 1248 O Street, on the corner of 13th Street in downtown Lincoln.