Sky Tower hopes high
Art gallery could support skyscraper
By Lori Coolican, The StarPhoenixApril 15, 2009 9:05 AMBe the first to post a comment
Plans for a new art gallery at River Landing could include structural reinforcements to support a sky-scraping 45-storey observation needle jutting from its roof, says a local businessperson who pitched the Sky Tower idea for the site to a civic committee last year.
In an interview Tuesday, Nick Hartle of Sitina Enterprises Inc. said the recent bombshell announcement about the Mendel Art Gallery's future move to the "destination centre" site next to Persephone Theatre only enhances his proposal, rather than supplanting it.
"The thing I'm working towards with the city is where the Sky Tower will be placed on top of the destination centre, which is just absolutely awesome," Hartle said.
"It could work very well together."
Hartle also owns the Odeon Events Centre downtown. When asked if he had spoken with civic officials about stacking a sky tower over the gallery, he said, "not in regards to the gallery. What they do, what they put in with the destination centre, is completely up to them. I'm only dealing with the roof part."
In fact, the city's destination centre steering committee came up with the idea, he said.
"They're the ones that brought it to me, wanting to do that instead of what I was planning on doing (a stand-alone tower), which was a great idea by the city. So that's what we're working on."
Planning for the tower project is still in the "early, early stages of the financial aspect of it," Hartle said. "But we by no means have abandoned our pursuit of it, at this point."
The steering committee meets only in private and is made up of 12 stakeholder representatives who were appointed by city council. Members include Mendel chair Art Knight, Persephone president Nicki Kiteley, University of Saskatchewan chancellor Vera Pezer and Meewasin Valley Authority executive director Susan Lamb.
Committee member Sandi Schultz, the city's special projects manager, said the committee is still considering the tower alongside several other ideas for "complementary uses with the gallery," but has made no decisions about any of them.
"The general proposal is for a new development and certainly the steering committee is still looking at the other proposals," she said.
Hartle has said he became enthusiastic about building a Sky Tower in Saskatoon after experiencing one during a European vacation a few years ago.
For a fee, as many as 72 people could ride in an enclosed gondola that slowly rotates as it rises up a concrete and steel tower, offering a panoramic view of the city and surrounding countryside.
The other projects proposed to the steering committee last year included a children's museum, an innovation showcase, a performing arts creativity centre and a First Nations keeping house. Hartle has said all of them would be able to complement a Sky Tower.
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I'm really shocked that the steering commitee proposed attaching the skytower to the roof of the new gallery, that is some pretty forward thinking for our tired commitees HAHA maybe they are tainting the water, regardless it is a FANTASTIC idea!
I think we can all safely say thaht the mendel will be moving regardless of how many people don't support the idea, and when it happens hthey will love the new facility and deny that they ever disagreed with the idea. I've found people in this city have a VERY difficult time thinking outside of the box and in the future.
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