Is anyone struck as much as I am by the change in massing of the downtown that this represents?
In the photo above (aerial shot from UC - thanks Echoes!) you have two blocks to the north of RL with only their tired low rise buildings and massive parking areas.
And then here we have it, not one, or two or three, but FOUR towers all jammed together on one small “half” block. And across the street, Persephone and RM jammed up against each other on an even smaller parcel, such that they (unlike the towers across the street) form one monolithic structure with only the river on one side to give them any breathing space. (Think difference between siting of Centennial Auditorium next to Midtown Plaza vs. Regina Centre of the Arts in Wascana.)
It is strange... Here we have significant buildings, each of which will or would make a significant impact on the area and buildings around them, all clustered together in such a way that their power and influence on their surroundings are sort of wasted on each other - none of them needs the help. They all make statements on their own.
And yet, being clustered together makes a separate statement of a different kind.
In other downtowns across the country, such clustering would be no big deal, it is just the way the areas have grown up as projects were built on whatever vacant land was available, or more correctly; remaining.
In little Saskatoon, that has never been an issue. We have lots of parking lots and one or two story older buildings that could give way to massive buildings. Any new tower development of any considerable height would not have visual or mass competition, as they do in larger centers.
These four towers could have been spread out throughout the downtown. Think about that! Four towers! Concurrently! In sleepy little Saskatoon, where nothing of significance height-wise has been built in decades!
But here we have them. All jammed together on a small block, and right on the edge of the river. Don’t misunderstand me. I have no problem with this. But it isn’t what we’re used to, and I believe it’s imoact will be more profound than we have previously realized.
The location of these buildings together will feed each other, and combine together, creating a seismic shift in the gravity that affects how people use and interact with our downtown. No longer will 20th street be the southern terminus of activity, motion, excitement and development downtown. The area bordered by 20th street, fourth avenue, 19th street and first avenue, will become the ‘it’ place to be, and develop. Where the action is.
The east-west corridor of 22nd street, defined by the edge of midtown and the auditorium not blocking access to the west will be displaced as the ‘centre’ of downtown, along which a number of the most massive buildings (by Saskatoon standards anyway) are located. The gravity of south downtown as the place to be, the open lots and small inexpensive buildings waiting to be replaced as they are consumed by developers, will literally shift our interaction and relationship with our small downtown core, to the south.
Will the existing centre of downtown at 22nd and 2nd-3rd avenues be abandoned? Of course not. But the footprint of the core has been massively expanded, and what was once little used periphery now adds huge weight on a side that for years offered very little. The balance point will, no... must... shift southward as the impact of this concentration of first class employment and living space becomes part of the fabric of the city. Six blocks worth (by Saskatoon’s spacious standards) of development all concentrated in a two block area.
And right across the Broadway bridge, two condo towers, going up together, soon to be spinning their own magnetism and gravity south across the river.
With a new bridge, (albeit small - nothing wrong with that - but ugly and looks backwards instead of forwards, in nothing but a shameless attempt to hide and bury years of neglect and mismanagement by civic administration and councils) the city of Saskatoon returns to its historical origin; the best, first place to get across the river.
For the first time since its construction, the Bessborough will have competition as the built environment’s focal point in Saskatoon. It won’t lose that standing, just have to share the attention. (Think how the Calgary Tower once dominated the skyline in Cow Town - now it sometimes can’t be seen.)
Getting back to the concentration of these four towers together, in a way only seen in much larger centres; it will create a ‘big boy’ feel that one gets in the street canyons of Calgary, Edmonton or Vancouver. Where the weight, and tipping point of attention is up. It draws the eye, attention and focus skywards... the ground seems less important by comparison. For Saskatoon, it will only be a taste of skyscraper urbanism, but it will be a real taste, undeniable in its effect.
Like a gangly teenager that is not yet a grown up adult, but certainly no longer a child, with characteristics of both, it becomes a time of rapid change; with the potential of what the future can truly hold becoming apparent and the knowledge of what kind of adult this kid of a city will turn out to be firmly grasped.
The real change that River Landing’s parcel ‘Y’ will bring upon us hasn’t even begun to be felt.
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