On the latest episode of the ABA Banking Journal Podcast — sponsored by Risk Proof, a PwC product — architecture critics Catesby Leigh and Anthony Paletta debate and illuminate two great traditions in U.S. bank design: classicism and modernism.

Based on their recent essays for the ABA Banking Journal, Leigh and Paletta explore how U.S. bank architecture developed over the past two centuries, why classical motifs became so dominant (to the extent that the portico of a Greco-Roman temple is the visual shorthand for banking) and how banks made the transition from classicism to modernism in the 20th century.

Leigh and Paletta also evaluate the future of bank branch architecture in an era when an image search for “bank” results in a sea of smartphone pictures. Meanwhile, in a bonus clip, they discuss the role of bankers as architectural patrons.

This episode is sponsored by Risk Proof, a PwC product.