By Mike Karr
Staff Writer

WORLAND — The site plans for the new Washakie Museum and Cultural Center were approved Thursday by the Worland Board of Adjustment and Planning Commission. The museum will be located on Big Horn Avenue, west of 23rd Street.

Jim Baldwin, with CTA Architects out of Billings explained the site plans with a computer model to the planning commission.

Sitting on four and a half acres of land, the main entry to the museum will be coming in off of Big Horn Avenue on the north side and a secondary entry/exit will be on 23rd Street.

Baldwin said that within the museum itself, there would be exhibit areas, permanent and temporary, a banquet facility, a small gift shop, bathrooms, a large lobby, office areas, kitchen area and storage areas.

The parking lot will have 118 spaces total, 113 standard spaces and five handicap spaces.

The parking stalls are going to be 10 feet wide. Also within the parking lot and surrounding it will be greenery that will appear as an oasis.

According to Baldwin, building materials would include natural stone, metal siding, masonry veneer product that would be a mix of a real rough texture and smooth and polished.

“The idea there is to try to emulate some of the geological stratification,” said Baldwin.

The building would roughly be 26,200 sq. feet, stated Baldwin. The proposed theater is not part of that sq. footage he said.

All of the utility services are in the back of the alley including water, sewer, gas and electrical noted Baldwin. He said they would be tied into the south side of the building into an electrical and mechanical room.

Project manager Mark Degenaars said they will have bid packages out for foundation and structure itself at the end of June and would like to break ground the first of August, so they can try to get out of the ground and get the super structure up prior to the winter.

“Probably be done with the major construction components of it near the end of 2009, and then we would have to get the exhibit portion going,” Degenaars said.

“So really, it’s going to go all the way to spring of 2010.

“But it’s exciting. I think it’s going to be one heck of a project,” Degenaars said.

Planning Commission member Dave Duffy said the site plans look fantastic.

A motion was made to approve the site plan and the variants to allow the 36-foot wide entrance on Big Horn Avenue.

The motion passed unanimously.

According to Degenaars, Groathouse Construction will be the general contractor.

The Newell B. Sargent Foundation established Sargent Legacy, LLC, for the purpose of designing and constructing the new Washakie Museum and Cultural Center. The foundation is the sole member of Sargent Legacy, LLC.

The foundation established an endowment of $4 million with the Wyoming Community Foundation, a foundation established by Sargent.

Five percent of the endowment will go directly to funding the operations and maintenance of the museum and cultural center.

Costs for the land and building are $13 million, with a little over $1 million for the land.