How are things looking from the south side??

The pace of construction seems to have really slowed down, at least the visible progress has appeared very slow after what was a fast spring/early summer. Does anyone know when the exterior work is expected to be completed so that the crane can come down? When is a topping off ceremony to take place?

View of the park. Looks pretty meh compared to original mock-ups.
https://i.ibb.co/k5sSJFW/AF710-AF7-1...-ED4-A6524.jpg

The more interesting (south) part of the plaza is obstructed from view in the photo above. I think it's actually going to be very similar to the renderings when it's done, c/w with "bridges' over the water feature and several fountain heads. Unfortunately, that's going to have to wait until Summer 2021.

I was going to ask about the water feature....is it just not visible in the photo? Would be a shame if they dropped that part of plaza!

Here’s a front facing one from insta

https://i.ibb.co/CWBzR5v/482868-C1-D...93-DDBBC41.jpg

edited

edited

I'm a little too young to clearly picture Saskatoon's river bank 30 years ago, but my mother mentioned how good an impression the city makes to all the visitors driving down Idylwyld now. It'll be an even bigger difference when the remaining River Landing parcels are developed and the pump house (hopefully) is transformed into some sort of restaurant/bar/tourist destination. River Landing village and the gallery really help make the transition from river stroll to downtown shopping seamless.

When I came back to Saskatoon about 25 years ago, the north bank of the river between the Victoria and Idylwyld bridges was basically an unofficial garbage dump with some gravel parking areas as well. I remember it being used as a loading & unloading area for the Formula 1 boat races that used to be held here - that was a really good event, held in in conjunction with Taste of Saskatchewan back then - but I digress. The area immediately west of the Idylwyld bridge near the pumphouse wasn't much better.

The City of Saskatoon & Meewasin have done a fantastic job developing River Landing over the past two decades. It's a real pleasure to see how much use that area now gets every day. The Persephone, Remai Modern, hotel, condo & office towers only add to the vibrancy down there. I don't often give credit to the City of Saskatoon, but it is well-earned when it comes to River Landing.

Meh don’t give them too much credit... I would still rather work and play in Winnipeg with their skywalk/tunnel system in the 8 months that no one but hardcore runners and bundled walkers walk river landing. We’re not gaining any new jobs from the design of this project. Nutrien is only staying because they’re forced to with Potash in the province, and no one at Agrium is transferring over here - nor would care to with the mediocre layout of how the whole river landing project isn’t directly connected to the condos or hotels. No exec wants to spend the money/get their massive jacket on for 8 months of the year to walk 3 minutes to their No 1 River Landing condo. or walk ten minutes in -40 to the mall. I’ll never understand why people are so against skywalks when most people hate Saskatoon for its cold in the first place.

I’ll give it credit that it’s pretty for 4 months of the year - when it’s not insanely windy here lol.

Good thing it's only -40C for a couple weeks of the year and the pleasant weather tends to last from March to October, if not longer many years. ;)

But I do agree about one thing Winnipeg is doing better than Saskatoon (which is definitely not hard to access underground tunnels) and that is the work they've done with the Forks and their warming huts to make it pleasant and even fun to spend time outside.

There are so many excellent and innovative and cool examples of initiatives to make "winter cities" like Saskatoon more accessible and enjoyable in the winter. Some are easy and some require some infrastructure investment (walking corridors that provide for sections of overhead heating)....this also allows for an extended season for outdoor patio/coffee shops.

Of it can be as easy as some downtown or river front special events....there was an amazing crowd on a cold evening a few years ago to celebrate centennial complete with bonfires, sculptures, igloo warming tent, sleigh rides and live entertainment/DJ...

I use to complain a lot about cold and winter, but I am finding that an investment in proper winter tech clothing (does not have to be your grandpa's big bulky parka) and a willingness to try some winter activities (we now show shoe and x-country ski) has actually made winter a season I look forward to. I would never have thought that even 5 years ago.

Give it a try, Roryn1!!

I know yall mean well about how we try to be a winter city, but we really suck at it and probably always will. I have more of an urge to visit Iceland or Banff for their winter activities than I will ever Winnipeg, Edmonton, or Saskatoon - forever until the end of the earth. Our weather here is very very cold compared to most nice winter cities - we are beyond a winter city this place is hell frozen over for a guaranteed 4 months of the year during a bad winter - and people don’t want to live somewhere that they have to go out into that for a potential 8 months of the year.

It’s not a nice try for me to make Saskatoon look bad / our city has been experiencing out migration to other cities for almost a decade now. The only growth is from other countries because no one wants to live in such a cold place. We need to adapt better with skywalks/tunnels - coming from a former resident of downtown Winnipeg, and living in BC for the winter because life is too short to weather through too many more prairie winters.

Well now I understand why people leave these so called construction threads, can someone start a Why I hate the prairie weather thread. That way we can go all out or ignore all together. Any construction news on this build??

I'm not interested in your rant, but I have to say that I think skywalks/tunnels/pedways etc. are a fantastically bad idea. Saskatoon's downtown is too small and spread out for that to be a realistic option. For example, if River Landing included pedways to the rest of the core, what would they even connect to? The density isn't here to do what you're proposing on a meaningful scale (not to mention the lack of local demand, political interest, resources to start digging tunnels lol, etc. etc. etc.).

So the "north" atrium at top is not completely glassed in and what appears to be an even larger atrium on South side is framed and waiting to be glassed in.

Does anyone know if either of these will be open to the public....perhaps a restaurant up there???

My understanding is that it will be space for the exclusive use of Nutrien.

If not solely Nutrien, it will at least be limited to tenants of that tower.

Our hopes for a rooftop/sky lounge accessible to the public rides on a restaurant going into the top of the East Tower.

That’s too bad... such a missed opportunity for Nutrien to utilize it both as an educational/art area for tourists and field trips for kids while also allowing it to be useable for employees to go at lunch. One can only hope our next largest tower - (probably anchored by BHP or Federated Co-op) will eventually make Saskatoon a city with a tower that tourists can go to the top to view our city. With such massive public investment into river landing it’s actually a shame that the city didn’t make that a requirement.