By Sheri Monk

The new Cypress Credit Union building under construction at Maple Creek will not feature brick as included in original designs, but will be entirely stucco.
Another feature, the friezes of the building have also been changed from the original representation. A frieze is an ornamental band that runs around a building, often horizontally.
Both the Southwest Saskatchewan Oldtimers’ museum and the Maple Creek Heritage Advisory Committee have written letters to the Cypress Credit Union Board requesting that the orignal design of the friezes be left as is, but neither make any mention of the loss of brick in the design.
Glen Goddard, general manager of Cypress Credit Union, confirmed changes have been made to the plans, which were first released to the public just over one year ago.
“That was the architect’s rendering. And from that architect’s rendering, then we went to tender. When you ask an architect to give you his first set of drawings, he is going to give you everything,” he explained. “They gave us in their eyes what a perfect building in downtown Maple Creek would look like. Which was fine and not that we didn’t all agree with that, but then reality has to come in. And the reality check is when you go to tender.”
In the original drawing, the building featured a red brick first storey, with an ornate, black frieze giving way to the second, matching red stucco storey and topped with a second matching frieze. The new design will feature only stucco and the ornate friezes have been scaled back in appearance.
“The only thing the building doesn’t have is the brick and the cornices. The band will still be 2.5” raised, it’s not just a different colour of stucco. It still features a raised band. It was tough to take it out, we all liked the look of that first building, but we also have to be financially prudent on what we’re spending the money on,” said Goddard.
He emphasized that the building will still fit in well with Maple Creek’s heritage feel and look and says he and the board are confident the building will greatly enhance the appearance of Maple Creek. Goddard also said the board collectively has made all the decisions with respect to the new building.
Though the little extras may seem insignificant, costs can incrementally become unmanageable and Goddard says the co-operative financial institution’s first priority is to their members, who are ultimately paying the bill.
“For the brick and the cornices, they would be approximately $200,000,” he said, adding the exact costs of the extras will be known in time for the board’s next regular meeting this Thursday. “Brick especially is a huge expense.”
Initially, the credit union asked the architect to include all the features which would have placed the building back in time to match the style of the town’s heritage buildings. But the tenders came in too high for the building’s budget and thus, the board’s wishlist was whittled down.
“Truly, that’s what we would have built, if we had all the money. But we have to stay within a budget,” said Goddard.
The building was initially expected to cost upwards of $2 million. However, even with the scaled-back design, it will cost $2.5 million to complete, and interior equipment and furnishings will add another $500,000 to the tab.
And it wasn’t just the exterior of the building which has changed – the interior was also unable to escape the clutches of fiscal responsibility.
“We only showed the outside rendering, but the inside rendering had a lot cut out of it too. Even lighting fixtures we had in there, if the lighting fixtures were $60,000, we put them back to $40,000,” he explained.
The new building, currently under construction at the corner of Jasper Street and Pacific Avenue will be Maple Creek’s prominent cornerstone building. Goddard said murals inside the credit union will depict the corner’s history, displaying its appearance from yesteryear.
In the Oldtimers’ letter to the credit union, signed by president Jerry Federowich, the organization pleads for the design to honour its original rendering. A similar letter was penned by Anne Weisgerber, chair of the Maple Creek Heritage Advisory Committee.
“Given the building’s size and position within the Maple Creek Heritage District, enhancing the building’s heritage look and feel is extremely important. We feel that the architectural impact of the crenellated friezes makes them an indispensable feature of the building’s design,” said Weisgerber in the letter. “We would therefore like to strongly encourage you to reconsider the design of the friezes, and return to the crenellated design.”
The announcement of the building came just as momentum was building to form the Maple Creek Heritage District and an advisory committee to help develop it. The initial design gained the favour of all and last year, the heritage district and advisory committee both came into being. Though the district has been created, there are no rules to force property owner’s to adhere to any regulations or rules, but the town may one day choose to offer voluntary incentives to help relieve the financial burden of building or renovating in adherence of heritage traits.
Royce Pettyjohn, a member of both the Heritage Advisory Committee and the Oldtimers’ Museum, hopes the town will become proactive sooner rather than later.
“I think this would be a good message to the town council. Right now the incentive program the town is looking at is a low-interest loan thing, but it’s not really a financial saving incentive program. I applaud the town for even agreeing to designate the heritage district and to even start the discussion of an incentive program,” he said Pettyjohn. “So it’s huge leaps forward from where we were before.”
He said the credit union established an interest in the heritage of the property right the beginning, but says plans to honour heritage often are changed because of the cost to implement them.
“It’s not that the Heritage Advisory Committee is trying to cause trouble or that the heritage district is going to try to be the gestapo when it comes to what should or shouldn’t be happening. I think generally, it’s the background to our daily lives in Maple Creek, the backdrop of our community. And if we have a town that prides itself on where the past is present, it would seem reasonable to imagine that we would try to create a backdrop in keeping with how the community has branded itself,” Pettyjohn said.
Ben Beveridge, president of the Maple Creek Chamber of Commerce has also written a letter to the credit union in support of the original design, but says the chamber is sympathetic to the financial constraints imposed by the design.
“The Chamber’s position is that we understand the cost limitations and budget limitations of taking the extra steps to really take the opportunity to be a leader in moving the community forward and to have a cohesive vision for doing that. The Chamber just wishes to communicate our encouragement for the credit union to do that if at all possible,” Beveridge said.
The new building’s move-in date is Oct. 1 of this year and Goddard said the current Cypress Credit Union building will be placed on the market.