Saskatoon Central Library | 4 Floors | Design Phase

[Crisis]

Just thought that I’d repost my comment of June 27th in the Saskatoon Construction thread:

Just last week (see attached link below), the Library Board doubled down on their assertion that Saskatoon's new Central Library is tracking on budget at $80M, as they've had similar budgets provided by their cost consultants. This project has been out for tender for about 3 weeks now and the general consensus in the industry is that the price will be in the $120M - $150M range. Questions have been formally submitted to the Owner's contract administrators asking for the process that will be followed when the tenders received are all significantly over budget. They simply reiterated their confidence in their budget and basically said that they will cross that budget bridge when they come to it. I guess we'll find out when tenders close on July 26th.

A $50M shortfall in the Library budget should go nicely with the City's similar operating budget shortfall forecast for next year.

Library Budget & Schedule update: https://saskatooncentrallibrary.ca/c...hedule-update/

BTW, if you go to that page, make sure to check out the "design" tab on the left hand side of the page. It contains the Final Design Report and a video explaining the design. It really is a great building, with a very interesting structure & envelope. It's just not going to be $80M.

[FarmerHaight]

I would give a snowball's chance in hell to the library being completed in 2027. So whatever "plans to minimize service disruptions to library service" SPL makes, they better be workable for 5 years or more.

The only way the Central Library construction costs will be brought back in-line with the library budget, even with a 3% inflationary increase until the completion date, is with some heavy-handed value engineering. I really hope the SPL isn't forced to build a boring box with a bunch of spandrel and no imagination (or scrap a significant number of the functional spaces inside the library), but with no foreseeable gift of funds from the city or deflation of construction costs coming down the pipe, and with the pressure that will mount to "just build a replacement already" once the current central branch is vacated, I don't know how Saskatoon will still get its landmark central branch that would be a treasured community asset for the next 100 years or more.