Conservatory set to close for more than a year
Plants in Mendel building to be moved during children’s museum renovations
For the first time since it opened in 1964, the conservatory in the former Mendel Art Gallery building will be closing for an extended stretch while the facility is renovated.
The City of Saskatoon announced the conservatory, which houses many plants and serves as a brief refuge for many during winter’s cold, will close Oct. 1 and reopen near the end of 2018.
The former Mendel building is being renovated to accommodate the Children’s Discovery Museum.
“Because it involves such a major change to that building, it involves ripping out the heating systems, so we have to close it down,” said Troy Lafreniere, the city’s director of facilities and fleet services.
Lafreniere said the conservatory will reopen, but was uncertain about any renovations that might occur. He said closing it down was always part of the plan for renovations to the building.
Darren Crilly, the city’s director of parks, confirmed the extended closure marks the first in the conservatory’s history.
“No question, it is a valued area to many of the citizens,” Crilly said in an interview. “It’s just so gorgeous.”
Crilly said most of the plants will be relocated to the city’s greenhouse facility on Avenue P. City staff have already taken cuttings from some of the larger plants that are deemed too big to move and started growing replacements, Crilly said.
The plants will be transferred back to the conservatory once it reopens.
The Saskatoon Civic Conservatory opened in 1964 along with the Mendel Art Gallery in its current location just east of Kinsmen Park on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River.
The Children’s Discovery Museum is reportedly on track to meet its deadline to open in early 2019. Museum officials have so far raised $15 million, about 60 per cent of the fundraising goal. The museum will rent space in the city-owned building.