Engineering Building (Saskatoon)

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The modern day Engineering Building was built on the foundations of the original Engineering Building which was destroyed by fire in March of 1925. Construction began the following June with an expected completion date of 1 November. Gentil J.K. Verbeke of Saskatoon designed the new structure building, which was initially budgeted at $277,150. In reality the project would run well into February, 1926 and eventually cost the University $304,169.65. The still uncompleted Engineering Building was occupied by the College in January, 1926.

Similar in design to its predecessor, the new Engineering Building featured a few noteworthy improvements. These included skylights for the top floor and individual lights for the draughting tables, a smoking lounge for students, and a new library and reading room. The new building contained 89,000 gross square feet of space, and also housed the Dean and Assistant Dean’s offices, about 15 staff offices, drafting rooms, several lecture rooms, laboratories and postgraduate student offices.

In 1939 the west wing of the new building was extended northward to house the Mechanical Engineering laboratories and the Welding Shop. An extension of the Tractor Laboratory was completed on 7 February, 1941 for $33,188.60. The extension was designed by Gentil J.K. Verbeke and was built by Shannon Bros. Construction. A full addition to the west wing also designed by Verbeke was completed in 1946 by W. C. Wells Contractors for $31,890. The official opening of the west wing took place on 10 February, 1948. In 1949 an Air Force hangar was adjoined to the building to provide “temporary” space for the College.

In the fall of 1961 the Evan A. Hardy Laboratory was completed as part of greater construction on the building. The laboratory project included extensive space for the Department of Agricultural Engineering, the Agricultural Engineering Research and Development Section and the Divisions of Hydrology and Control Systems. The project was completed in 1963 for $611,761; it was constructed by the W.C. Wells construction firm. The laboratory was designed by architect J. K. Verbeke while the further addition was designed by the architectural firm of Webster, Forrester and Scott.

In the late 1970's the Engineering Building would go through drastic renovations. In six stages from 1977 to 1983 the entire building was completely overhauled and redesigned. It encompassed the replacement of the original portion of the single storey west wing, the removal of the Storage Building, the construction of additions, and renovations in what remained of the original building. The architectural firm responsible for this redesign was Forrester, Scott and Bowers, and the total cost of the project would eventually surpass $13 million.

The reconstruction began in 1977. It included the demolition of the old central heating and power plant, the construction of additions to house the Hardy Lab and central shops, and the relocation of a small section serving the Deptartment of Geological Sciences. The second phase included the demolition of a one-storey wing of the building which adjoined the Hardy Lab, and its replacement with a larger three-story structure. A second storey was then built over the office section of the Hardy Lab, which was also renovated. The first phase of demolition work was carried out by CEL Contracting for $136,000 while the second was performed by Roscoe Enterprises for $39,626. The majority of the reconstruction itself was performed by Cana Construction for $1,012,730.

n 1980 Cana Construction built an addition to the B Wing of the building and performed partial alterations to the A Wing for $10,003,369. In 1983 they returned to finish renovations for approximately $113,000 while the Haid Construction firm carried out further renovations for $67,432. In the meantime VK Mason finished renovating the old C Wing of the building in 1981 at a cost of $1,463,313. Final reconstruction of the old section of the Engineering Building was completed in 1986 when Graham Construction completed renovations totalling $449,125 for the Computer Science Department. This final phase was designed by Scott and Bowers.The 1983 phase of the redesign has the distinction of being the last building project on campus designed using the Imperial system of measurement.

During the summer of 2000 the old section of the Engineering Building, which had been renovated in 1986 for the Computer Science Department, was demolished. An extension to house the Department of Chemical Engineering was constructed from the spring of 2000 to August, 2002 for $13 million. The teaching and research facility was funded through a grant from the Provincial Government. It contains 21 laboratories, a pilot plant containing five additional labs, a computer design laboratory, and space for graduate students. The building was occupied in September, 2002.