science

Wenceslao Sarmiento

Wenceslao Sarmiento is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wenceslao Sarmiento rather than just read about it. In short: Wenceslao Alfonso Sarmiento (September 28, 1922 – 24 November 2013), also known as W.A. Sarmiento, was a Peruvian-born American modernist architect.

Key takeaways

Wenceslao Sarmiento belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wenceslao Sarmiento to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wenceslao Sarmiento from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wenceslao Alfonso Sarmiento (September 28, 1922 – 24 November 2013), also known as W.A. Sarmiento, was a Peruvian-born American modernist architect.

Sarmiento studied in various locations in South America, for eighteen months in the office of Oscar Niemeyer, 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. 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 on Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona. The smaller branch banks tend to be more playful, eye-catching, Googie projects.

Sarmiento lived in Santa Monica, California and was still active in the preservation of his buildings until his death in 2013.

Major works

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. 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. Phoenix Financial Center, 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

National Trust page on the preservation of the First Security Bank in Salt Lake City at the Wayback Machine (archived March 21, 2007)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wenceslao Sarmiento

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wenceslao Sarmiento claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wenceslao Sarmiento before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wenceslao Sarmiento ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wenceslao Sarmiento

In research: Wenceslao Sarmiento appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wenceslao Sarmiento in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wenceslao Sarmiento is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1922 births, 2013 deaths, 20th-century American architects, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wenceslao Sarmiento outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wenceslao Sarmiento in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wenceslao Sarmiento means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wenceslao Sarmiento out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wenceslao Sarmiento in simple terms?

Wenceslao Alfonso Sarmiento (September 28, 1922 – 24 November 2013), also known as W.A. Sarmiento, was a Peruvian-born American modernist architect.

Why does Wenceslao Sarmiento matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wenceslao Sarmiento?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wenceslao Sarmiento.