Silver Sage Housing Corporation (Silver Sage) hosted a partnership gathering to celebrate the end of construction for Regina’s first Rapid Housing Initiative project, a new 29-unit permanent supportive housing facility for individuals and families experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity in Regina. The project broke ground in September of last year, with Big Block Construction overseeing the design-build stage of the development.

YWCA Saskatoon has announced an exciting expansion of its Crisis Shelter & Residence, with the organization embarking on a transformative journey to address the urgent need for safe and supportive housing in the community. The expansion project involves the construction of a new 35-unit transitional housing development, aimed at providing affordable residential units and support programming to women and their children who are fleeing traumatic and violent situations.

We are looking for an exceptional accountant who will support the team as we work to transform the housing supply landscape in the Prairie provinces. The successful candidate will play a key role in managing day-to-day accounting functions and will contribute to the overall success of Big Block by analyzing financial data and preparing custom reporting to support real-time decision-making. Please send your cover letter and resume to abamberger@bigblockconstruction.ca.

Designing housing for modular construction is a unique process in the building industry — it requires careful consideration from the early stages of the project to ensure efficient and cost-effective results. There are some specific methods modular-built housing uses that differ from traditional stick building, including building for increased rigidity during transport and craning. We also try to complete as much as possible in the factory, especially in areas where on-site labour is both premium and scarce. These types of considerations change the way we need to approach our projects.

With the latest round of CMHC’s Rapid Housing Initiative closed, community-minded organizations building housing are looking for other opportunities for funding. One place for organizations to look is the CMHC’s National Housing Co-Investment Fund (NHCF), which is for new affordable housing, as well as the renovation and repair of existing affordable and community housing.

We are looking for an exceptional community development coordinator who will support the team as we establish key strategic relationships in key markets and guide our customers though the development journey. The successful candidate will play a fundamental role in supporting the team in cultivating new opportunities and creating an outstanding customer experience, enabling our customers to build communities at full throttle.

One of the misconceptions about modular construction is that it’s only useful for certain types of projects, like single-family homes, townhouses or small apartments. There are situations where a project isn’t the right fit for modular, and Big Block is happy to choose a stick build in those situations. That said, modular construction is becoming increasingly sought-after for building wood-frame multi-family developments across the housing continuum, including townhouses and low to mid-rise residential and mixed-use complexes.

Saskatchewan has outpaced the national average for construction progress under the Rapid Housing Initiative with 100% of units approved under the first two RHI rounds completed by this fall. The key is collaborative partnerships and advanced construction methods. This article examines what development productivity looks like in practice, and how it relates to the CMHC’s new Housing Accelerator Fund.

The Home Fire Complex, the City of Regina’s Rapid Housing Initiative project being led by Silver Sage Housing, is one step closer to seeing residents move into their new home later this summer. This week, Big Block Construction, the development partner on the project, completed the modular craning process at the construction site at the corner of Broad Street and 5th Avenue North.

As a development partner, Big Block brings two primary methods of construction to the forefront of a project: stick-built and modular construction. Stick-built refers to the traditional method of building a home on-site, while modular construction involves constructing a home in a factory setting and then transporting it to the building site. When we’re helping our partners navigate the development journey, we also need to help them evaluate which method is right for the project.