The 1950's and early 1960's were years of incredible change for Saskatchewan.
At the heart of this evolution was the drive toward rural electrification,
with SaskPower delivering power to as many as 7,800 new farms a year.
In 1952, natural gas was discovered in quantity near Kindersley, and
by 1961 more than 100 communities had natural gas service.
In 1959 and 1960, the government commissioned the Queen Elizabeth and Boundary Dam power stations to meet the increased electricity demand. Additionally, in 1960 SaskPower acquired the distribution systems and power plants of Moose Jaw and Weyburn. By the end of 1961, SaskPower had introduced electricity to over 67,000 farms and delivered power to virtually the entire southern half of Saskatchewan.
READ MORE on rural electrification
A Scattered Head Office
In the mid 1950's, general manager David Cass-Beggs realized there was a need to consolidate SaskPower's head office staff into a new building. Due to the corporation's rapid expansion, individual departments often occupied more than one location, and had to deal with increasing communication problems and inefficiency. SaskPower's growth reached the point that, by 1963, head office staff had become dispersed through 11 Regina office buildings.
Finding an Architect
Architect Joseph Pettick was born in Hungary in 1924, and moved to Kipling, Saskatchewan in 1927. As a young man, he enrolled as an architectural apprentice, serving as chief draftsman with Portnall and Stock Architects in Regina. Following his apprenticeship, Pettick studied at the University of Oklahoma with Bruce
Goff and Mendel Glickman. Upon completing his studies, Pettick returned to Regina and established his own architectural firm.
At a sod-turning ceremony in 1956, Joseph Pettick met and talked with SaskPower's new general manager, David Cass-Beggs. Though, initially, they were not introduced, Pettick and Cass-Beggs spent much of the reception conversing with one another, discussing politics, the UN, and trends in the arts. A few months later Pettick received a phone call from Cass-Beggs for an interview. They met and, shortly after, Pettick was commissioned to design the new SaskPower head office building.
The SaskPower building would be Joseph Pettick's first major project, and the one that launched his career. The Regina city skyline would look far different today without Pettick's enormous contribution, having designed, among others, the SGI building, City Hall, and the Bank of Montreal Tower.
