Central Melli Bank

The Central Melli Bank in Shiraz is a reinforced concrete structure that represents the early efforts of the Pahlavi era to integrate modern institutional needs with traditional Persian aesthetics. Designed by the architect Mohsen Foroughi, the branch is part of a series of buildings he created for the National Bank of Iran in the late nineteen thirties. Foroughi, who was trained in Western techniques, sought to balance contemporary structural methods with local identity.