EYES ON THE SKY AS HIGHRISE GOES UP

City native overseeing construction of long-awaited condominium and hotel project at River Landing

The StarPhoenix asked senior structural engineer Tara Reichert about the challenges of building a highrise building in Saskatoon.

Reichert, a native of Saskatoon and a University of Saskatchewan graduate, is overseeing the construction of the 20-storey condominium tower and 15-storey hotel on Parcel Y at River Landing.

Q It’s been about 35 years since a structure of this size and height was built in Saskatoon. What has changed in that time?

A There’s been lots of changes. Every five years, our national building codes change. We design things slightly differently. You always need to be on top of the current codes and understandings. And we don’t build a highrise every day. So the people who designed the last highrise office building or residential or condo, they’re not around. They’re all retired, sitting on a beach somewhere. So there’s a lot of expertise that you develop in building one of these and just working on one of these buildings.

Q This is a fairly unique building with a condo tower next to a hotel. What are some of the challenges?

A I think the challenge when you consider that they also sit on a parkade, there are three different ownership groups, there are three different architecture groups, there are two different structural engineers, three different mechanical engineers and two different electrical engineers. And so between that everything gets integrated into one. So communication was the biggest challenge on this project. That is, figuring out who to talk to for what piece of information to make it all come together.

There’s a lot of pieces that interact, and these are actually two separate buildings. There is a one-foot space between them. And the space is developed because they will move slightly differently. So as soon as you have a wind, the buildings sway, and their stiffness makes them sway differently, so that they’ve got a little bit of space so they never collide together.

Q What was your reaction when the developers told you they wanted to add four floors to this building ?

A Yeah, I almost fell off my chair. I knew they wanted to add it, but I didn’t think that we would be able to do it, just with all the constraints we already had in place. We had the foundation package out for tender. We knew what all the concrete sizes were going to be. We knew all the reinforcement steel.

We redesigned the footings, we redesigned the columns, we redesigned the stair and elevator shafts, all to accommodate the four extra floors. And the transfer force slab as well. But we didn’t know it was going to work. At the start, we were thinking, for sure two (floors), and so we looked into a little bit and we were like, ‘No, I think we can actually do four.’ And then we did the complete redesign.

So, like I said, when we looked at adding four extra floors, there was a 25 per cent increase in the vertical weight of the building and then the lateral force increased 2.5 times. So that’s your wind force. So bringing it up, the height was more of the issue than the actual weight of it.

Q Has construction gone fairly smoothly?

A There are always things that arise when you’re dealing with projects of this magnitude, but I think everybody’s been trying their best to work together and make it work. There’s always questions. Who’s responsible for what, but in the end they figure it out. Because it’s all attached. In the end, these buildings are sitting on the same foundation.

Q What are some of the features of the building that might surprise people?

A Well, the views are amazing. It was great, even when it was -40 C doing rebar inspection and you just look over, and the winter views are just as beautiful as the summer views. But I think there was a real strong focus on local content, local expertise. That was something that (developer) John (Nasser) pushed through. I mean, Saskatoon does not necessarily have the full expertise so we had design firms from Calgary, Toronto and Montreal and Quebec City working on this project. But a lot of them were from Saskatoon, which was great.

We’ve met every deadline, and some of them are really aggressive, especially when we had changes.

Q You’re from Saskatoon. What does it feel like to be a part of this project?

A It’s a legacy. I mean, when are you going to be building or designing a building on the river that’s just going to be there forever? So in 50 years we’re going to still be seeing it. And it better still be looking good in 50 years. So you have a sense of pride and ownership when you’re designing things within the city.

Q What is the pressure like with all the precision and deadlines?

A Deadlines are intense, yeah. We’ve met every deadline, and some of them are really aggressive, especially when we had changes. So we were adding four floors and we were like weeks away, maybe a month away, from pouring foundation. So we had a lot of design work to get done in the right time before the work proceeded. The pressure was there, and sometimes it was intense and other times it was less intense. It doesn’t hurt that all the contractors and everybody is there to help you meet those deadlines and get the information you need in a timely manner.