Saskatoon | Escala | ?m | 7 Floors | U/C
 

Escala Saskatoon Website

I had a quick look at the Escala website and it looks to me like 20/45 units are sold or pending. I seem to recall looking at the website a few months ago and finding that it was half sold. So it does not look like there has been many sales lately. I am a little bit concerned about this as it is my hope that parcel D at River Landing gets developed soon (hopefully with an attractive building such as #1RL or Urban Capital Broadway, not something mediocre like the proposed River Terraces).

The Escala floor plans do look larger and more upscale than #1 RL, and so I would guess they are quite expensive. I have to think there is a market for this type of development, as there must be a lot of boomers who are looking to downsize, and/or get rid of the hassle of looking after a detached house.

The location of this development is fantastic, although I do have sympathy for the 2 or 3 homeowners on Sask Cres. who's backyards will be directly overlooked.

Judging from the renderings, the building itself is OK, but certainly nowhere near as attractive as many similar sized developments in Vancouver/Toronto/etc. Its got a bit of the "Saskatoon-Stucco" vibe, and looks a little bit mashed together IMHO. Still, it's much better than the church its replacing!

Anyway, I go past this site quite regularly on my runs (ditto River Terraces, Broadway, etc) so I hope to provide regular updates.

Mar. 9 Pictures:

https://i.imgur.com/0LvM3XE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cHfZGIO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zUvKnFK.jpg

I regularly go past the Escala site. Its been almost a month since my last posting. Progress seems to be extremely slow. I think they have been gutting the building... last week I saw a pile of old radiators sitting outside.

April 5:

https://i.imgur.com/We2pFpS.jpg

There are chunks of wall cut out below many of the windows. The only thing I can think of is that they are trying to salvage the windows? If that is the case I can't help but wonder if that is really worth the effort? I mean, the building could have been knocked down and hauled away in a couple days. On several occasions I have walked past a house on my way to work, and the way home, the house and foundation are gone!

Demolition commencing: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwAJ_OsnCoE/

Saskatoon pastor knocks down first bricks in church demolition
Pastor Brent Rudoski of Faith Alive Family Church helped demolish the church’s old location on University Drive on April 8, 2019.

SASKATOON STARPHOENIX
Updated: April 8, 2019

Pastor Brent Rudoski of Faith Alive Family Church helped demolish the church’s old location on University Drive on April 8, 2019. After getting behind the controls of a massive excavator to knock the first bricks loose, Rudoski said the experience was exciting and scary. The church has moved to the R.M. of Corman Park, while its former location will soon be the site of a major condominium project planned by Meridian Development Corp.

Read more: https://thestarphoenix.com/news/loca...rch-demolition

April 8:

I guess my theory about salvaging the windows was wrong... they are not visible in the photo but they were not removed before demo began.

Also it appears from the image below that the demo'ed portion was an addition to the original building. I'll bet the original was actually a nice looking building with decent proportions and good-looking brick construction.

There are nice window openings, and what appears to be a glulam arch can be seen inside what I'm guessing is the original section.


https://i.imgur.com/x3VlUmD.jpg

Hmmm. Very curious. You say that they were salvaging the radiators? Perhaps it was easier to just knock holes in the wall and bring the rads straight out that way rather than hauling them out the building and down the stairs. Seems far-fetched, but beneath the windows is where I would expect the rads to have been located.

Maybe asbestos?

Yeah, that might explain why they spent weeks working inside with no apparent progress on the outside.

April 9:

It looks like there are fluorescent lights tacked onto the beautiful laminated arches! To me that's almost worse than the corrugated tin steeple.

https://i.imgur.com/T5T0ynC.jpg

Hmm, possibly mould remediation? Under windows is prone to black mould and maybe they didn't want to have to outfit their demo crews all in hazmat suits if they just leveled the building as it was? I'm just taking a stab in the dark at the possible reason.

Looks like a lot of useful material that could have been salvaged out of that building, those beams and all those cinder blocks that will probably just be going to the landfill.

April 10:

Not much left... I'd like to see them pull down the steeple but I fear it might be done by the time I pass by again tomorrow.

https://i.imgur.com/Nt8GWSX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/EaFOuf1.jpg

I thought the same thing. Would be nice if there was a program to save at least some materials for other uses. Either for non-profits in small projects or to put aside for the general public to pick up for free. I am aware of risks and timelines for demo and construction though. So I'm not sure how it would work.

I think the greatest loss was the "arched timber beams"...they looked pretty decent in the demo photos. Too bad they could not have been re-purposed in some way...even as an art installation in the development or landscaping.

I noticed they are salvaging some bricks. There are a couple of stacks visible and also a pallet in the left side of the image (there were more). I didn't get a pic, but the steeple is gone and so is the house that was next to the church.

I missed the steeple demo... they had to bring in a special demo rig with a really long arm and a "pincher" at the end of it. They parked the rig on the side road (where the excavator bucket is in the image below) and reached across the rubble to pull down the steeple.

The steeple itself was made of steel beams with corrugated metal sheathing.

https://i.imgur.com/zIhO3M9.jpg

Looks like they are going to have a "store front" sales centre on Broadway next to the Clothes Cafe. I am sure this is in response to the trailer sales centre that Urban Capital will be opening on site for Highpointe.

Great to see some salvage happening

April 24 Pic:

Site clean and survey sticks in.

https://i.imgur.com/BoZoZe4.jpg

April 26, 2018

Cassion installation starting.

https://i.imgur.com/Q6EoGRb.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rYJjaSt.jpg