New PSB bank dwarfed by proposed byway 'monolith'

Recently I have noticed a letter or two decrying the scale of the new Intermountain Bank building in Sandpoint, ie; "Mega buildings should not have home in Sandpoint" on March 18 by Mr. Erik Daarstad.

What troubles me is that it seems as though many who would object to the size and scale of the new banking center simultaneously support the proposed Sand Creek Byway highway proposal. (I do not mean to infer that Mr. Daarstad is among these people.)

The byway, an enormous concrete monolith, would be roughly the equivalent of dragging five ships the size of the battleship Missouri up the middle of Sand Creek and anchoring them forever end to end. Then, just for fun, let's remove all aesthetic appeal, and add 24-hour non-stop noise. Talk about mega building in Sandpoint.

I for one am also grateful at the decision of our local bank to root itself in its home community. All too often the familiar story is one of the local company growing successfully and then leaving the hometown. Admittedly large, the building architects of the banking center have gone to great lengths to make the exterior very, very appealing utilizing beautiful natural materials when completed.

This of course contrasts to the stark presence of the dormitories at the Seasons, where the designers of the condo exteriors seem to have conceded to the future existence of the byway project in an effort to assure eventual bleakness on both sides of the tracks.

Where there can always be legitimate artistic debate over the appearance of structures, it does appear that the scale of the new banking center shrinks to insignificance in comparison to the overwhelming, overpowering magnitude of that proposed byway monolith right up the creek.

TERRY LAMB

Sagle