Saskatoon Construction III

[Saskabusher]

never mind this is saskatoons gugenheim

[phone]

Originally Posted by Saskabusher

why not go to the library thread? And by derivative do you mean the architect is just rehashing old projects, or copying or what...? It's obvious in design for a reason, and better done than expected. wide streets to small trees and this wonderful architecture opening up to the living skies. it'll be compared to the guggenheim in ny, but locals won't know till they're told from afar.... nevertheless, where's my parking!? Anyone wanting to find a place to relax and sees that last picture- in saskatoon! will never think to be underwhelmed. the wood and windows and view are fantastic. i think I'm insulted when something such as this is being given to the public and they say its nothing different than what we already have. where in saskatoon can you go to a place like this for free?

Maybe I'm underselling how I feel about the library. I do like it. It will suit Saskatoon's needs very well, and it is a handsome building, and a huge improvement over what we have. But it's not wrong to say that it's derivative. I'm specifically thinking of Calgary's new central library, which bears more than a passing resemblance to this one. Saskatoon's looks like it was modelled after Calgary's at least to some extent, but with cheaper exterior treatments. But I completely agree with your point that most locals won't notice or care.

[Saskabusher]

oh phone, you got me, hahaha. i don't think so, calgarys library is unique and amazing in its own right, just cause its white and rounded and... never mind

[Wyku]

If it's copying another library, better it be Calgary than Edmonton's.

[Saskabusher]

just a blurb on Sask crime, to move this over from the library thread. Crisis has a good point where i said Warman's had some serious crime lately and it's rising, so wherever people want to go, the problems will follow. anyone with teenagers knows, ha, but i was mistaken, i thought the murder involving 3 people was in Warman by residents there. nevertheless, as sky-high rates of crime have bin fallin' round Canada, in Warman, they've gone up a whopping half percent. how do you feel about your neighborhood?
https://www.areavibes.com/warman-sk/crime/

[Wyku]

Originally Posted by Saskabusher

just a blurb on Sask crime, to move this over from the library thread. Crisis has a good point where i said Warman's had some serious crime lately and it's rising, so wherever people want to go, the problems will follow. anyone with teenagers knows, ha, but i was mistaken, i thought the murder involving 3 people was in Warman by residents there. nevertheless, as sky-high rates of crime have bin fallin' round Canada, in Warman, they've gone up a whopping half percent. how do you feel about your neighborhood?
https://www.areavibes.com/warman-sk/crime/

Sorry, what does this have to do with construction? Not sure why you posted in the library thread and then felt compelled to attempt to move the conversation here...

[Saskabusher]

wow i'm hitting nerves left and right. forget about it! it's over now. um, any news on the construction front?...

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by Saskabusher

wow i'm hitting nerves left and right. forget about it! it's over now. um, any news on the construction front?...

Sometimes you just can't win. I'll share the blame on this one, as I drove it off topic in the Library thread.

There is the Western Expresso thread for OT conversations, unfortunately, it rarely gets used or even viewed. If I'd been thinking I should have made my response to the Warman crime comment in that thread and posted a link to it in the Library thread.

That being said, I wouldn't worry about it too much - look at what goes on in the Regina Construction thread. Not that I'm saying we want to emulate that...


As for Construction news, in a Q&A that ran in Saturday's S-P, Mike Brennan from GW Brewing notes that they're a few weeks away from building permit application for their expansion:

Q: The deal with the Flames is another way of expanding the reach and scope. GW is also expanding at home, with the $40-million expansion and renovation to your facilities that will double your production capabilities from 50 million cans annually to about 100 million. What’s the status report?

A: It’s moving as fast as I can get it to move. It’s a long process. Firstly, we’re building a brewery that will stand for the next hundred years to replace the one that’s almost 100 years old, or tie in to the existing structure. We’ve got to make sure we’re doing everything right. We are weeks away from hopefully submitting our building permits. It ties into the growth, the plans we have.

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/loca...he-stanley-cup

[Wyku]

If we want to discuss Warman/Martensville construction (or at least projects on hold ), there have been repeated failed attempts in Warman to get funding from the Provincial Goverment for an expansion to the Legends Centre facility to add 2 more rink surfaces, which has always been the plan for the facility. There was talk of adding $192 per year for every property for 15 years, but that got voted down/put back to administration... for now.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9103609/w...nsion-project/


Martensville is also working on a new arena development. It was slated to be done in 2022, but I think they've only maybe just broken ground on the development area. There was some heavy duty equipment around the area a few weeks back, but nothing of substance.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7308581/m...tion-facility/

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by Wyku

If we want to discuss Warman/Martensville construction (or at least projects on hold ), there have been repeated failed attempts in Warman to get funding from the Provincial Goverment for an expansion to the Legends Centre facility to add 2 more rink surfaces, which has always been the plan for the facility. There was talk of adding $192 per year for every property for 15 years, but that got voted down/put back to administration... for now.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9103609/w...nsion-project/

I'd be shocked if the addition to Legends centre didn't proceed. I've been staying in touch with this project for a few years and the plan always seemed to be to exhaust all the additional sources of funding prior to going it alone. Now that those funding sources are not going to contribute, I fully expect the City to borrow the money required to complete the project. There is tremendous demand for ice time, not just from Warman organizations but from the Greater Saskatoon area as well. The second sheet of ice will get used and generate income, unlike some other recreation expenditures.

Warman was in the same situation during the early stages of the original Legends Centre project. The Town (at the time) was unsuccessful in securing any additional government funding and actually halted construction for several months prior to biting the bullet and borrowing the funds required to finish the facility. I think most would agree that was the right call at the time and I believe it will be again now.

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

To be fair, the only developments we have to talk about lately are new parking lots and an arena to keep up with you guys

C'mon now, you've recently had some riveting discussion of crosswalk lines...

[Wyku]

Originally Posted by Crisis

Warman was in the same situation during the early stages of the original Legends Centre project. The Town (at the time) was unsuccessful in securing any additional government funding and actually halted construction for several months prior to biting the bullet and borrowing the funds required to finish the facility. I think most would agree that was the right call at the time and I believe it will be again now.

Do you recall what the financial impact was on residents at the time of the original project? When the rumblings of the vote for the plan for how to address this expansion with the 15-year flat-rate property tax impact came up it didn't go over well and enough feedback got pushed back to the mayor/council to at least take another look at things before bringing it up again.

[CanadianDriverYXE]

Update on the construction site across the Delta hotel downtown.

[Crisis]

Originally Posted by Wyku

Do you recall what the financial impact was on residents at the time of the original project? When the rumblings of the vote for the plan for how to address this expansion with the 15-year flat-rate property tax impact came up it didn't go over well and enough feedback got pushed back to the mayor/council to at least take another look at things before bringing it up again.

I don’t recall there being a specific tax levy identified as being allocated to the Legends Centre build at the time. However, the impact should have been greater than this one will be, given that there were fewer taxpayers at the time and probably a similar value to be financed. Legends Centre was about $22M at the time but some of the money had already been raised through fundraising and some early grant money.

edit: Since I posted about this, I've gotten some more feedback, and it does sound like the decision to proceed on the 2nd ice surface is not at all a done deal. In my opinion, it would be a major mistake to not add the second ice surface. Right now, Warman could host hockey/ringette tournaments pretty much every weekend if they had a second ice rink. Many citizens bemoan the fact that the hotel is relatively empty and there aren't enough restaurants, however, this would be a great way to bring people to town and have them spend their money on food & lodging. Yes, they would be hosting tournaments that draw teams from much farther than Saskatoon.

[EpicPonyTime]

Originally Posted by Wyku

Martensville is also working on a new arena development. It was slated to be done in 2022, but I think they've only maybe just broken ground on the development area. There was some heavy duty equipment around the area a few weeks back, but nothing of substance.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7308581/m...tion-facility/

I was in Martensville last week and I don't recall seeing the equipment out, although I wasn't really looking for it.

For anyone who doesn't know, the location of Martensville's arena is across the highway from the rest of the City. IMO an absolutely terrible, terrible, terrible location for an arena. I suppose the City thinks it'll be the centre of their own Legends subdevelopment, which just goes to show they don't understand what made that development such a game changer for Warman.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

For anyone who doesn't know, the location of Martensville's arena is across the highway from the rest of the City. IMO an absolutely terrible, terrible, terrible location for an arena. I suppose the City thinks it'll be the centre of their own Legends subdevelopment, which just goes to show they don't understand what made that development such a game changer for Warman.

It also really annoys me when cities decide to jump to the other side of the highway, when it is obvious that the current road infrastructure was never designed with that in mind. The current overpass was built to serve a Martensville on the East side of the highway, not the west. There will certainly be congestion from all the cars attempting to turn left onto Mierau road from the offramp.

Also, I guess the city isn't interested in enabling anybody from Martensville to walk to the arena? If the arena was built west of the city, you could potentially have kids from the elementary, high, and Catholic schools walking to the arena for stick and puck or Phys Ed classes.

[phone]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

It also really annoys me when cities decide to jump to the other side of the highway, when it is obvious that the current road infrastructure was never designed with that in mind. The current overpass was built to serve a Martensville on the East side of the highway, not the west. There will certainly be congestion from all the cars attempting to turn left onto Mierau road from the offramp.

Also, I guess the city isn't interested in enabling anybody from Martensville to walk to the arena? If the arena was built west of the city, you could potentially have kids from the elementary, high, and Catholic schools walking to the arena for stick and puck or Phys Ed classes.

While I agree with you in principle, in fairness to Martensville, plans to expand west of Hwy 12 are nothing new, and there is a greater amount of land slated for development to the east. Development appears to be unfolding pursuant to the P4G Planning District OCP. That said, it is still a blunder to put the arena on the west side of the highway, though I'd imagine that local planners were trying to put something major to anchor the development instead of just purely residential and incidental retail/services (rightly or wrongly).

Also -- the entire raison d'etre for Martensville is the personal automobile. It's not even an ostensible "railway town" like Warman. I'm not sure if we can expect much beyond that planning-wise for our two little moons, even if we hope for more.

[EpicPonyTime]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

It also really annoys me when cities decide to jump to the other side of the highway, when it is obvious that the current road infrastructure was never designed with that in mind. The current overpass was built to serve a Martensville on the East side of the highway, not the west. There will certainly be congestion from all the cars attempting to turn left onto Mierau road from the offramp.

Also, I guess the city isn't interested in enabling anybody from Martensville to walk to the arena? If the arena was built west of the city, you could potentially have kids from the elementary, high, and Catholic schools walking to the arena for stick and puck or Phys Ed classes.

Years and years ago, I once spoke with one of Saskatoon's city planners, and he made a very good point about the highway when I suggested that Martensville would one day expand west: you have to treat the highway like a river. You can't have a single bridge crossing a river and expect the community to thrive.

This was back before the overpass was even thought of, but you make a good point: functionally, how is that overpass going to act as the central connection between two sides of the city? It isn't set up for that, nor does it have pedestrian walkways. I can't imagine any developers - be it residential or commercial - are going to want to build in a nigh inaccessible part of the City. Honestly, it'd make more sense to build it out at the failed commercial development near Lake Vista. Far more accessible and central.

It's just the latest poor planning decision from a City that's written the book on them.

[Saskabusher]

Wow- I'm surprised how little thought and planning goes into public safety and sustainability.. 'our two little moons' by the poetic phone... that's a nicer image...

[reddo]

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/c...g?format=1000w

There is a pedestrian crossing planned, but still doesn't seem well planned out to have the city split like that with such a small overpass. To me seems like a brand new city rather than an expansion to a current one.