Wed May 30, 2012
Places

Glass attack

When two panes of glass plunged off RBC’s Wellington Street building on Tuesday, it was like last summer all over again. Engineers, developers, and condo dwellers had all sorts of explanations for 2011’s bursts of falling glass—poor installation, high winds, record-setting temperatures that warped windows. The problem faded in the cooler months, but with another hot summer coming on, we should learn if the phenomenon will become a seasonal hazard.

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That the YWCA can look as beautiful as the Ritz isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Yes, there is a certain sameness to alot of these buildings going up in the ongoing condo boom that needs to be addressed; overall design in general should all go through the design review board not only for aesthetics but also for safety and lessons learned (ie: falling glass; tempered vs. laminated). The results so far on the waterfront look promising and a condo at Yonge & Eglinton was recently sent back to the drawing board to make it more engaging to the street and the city dwellers it will affect. Obviously, tempered glass is a serious issue. The materials falling off of other buildings aren’t a consistent and repeated occurence, FCP’s marble was isloated to it’s use of Cararra Marble which was inappropriate for our climate and weather conditions. The old Salad King building had just had work done to it when that episode occurred under very suspicious circumstances, only later to be completely burnt to the ground by an arsonist so that the building could be demolished and the Lalani family could finally profit from their land holdings. Torontonians need to embrace the inevitable densification of our great city by demanding the best in architecture, design, materials and urban planning from the developers, architects, city planners and purchasers of these buildings.
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7:48 am on June 5, 2012

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Bella

The irony is that the danger isn’t even worth it. Glass condos look cheap and generic. There’s not that much difference between the new Ritz-Carlton and the new YWCA building… except the YWCA has more style with its coloured panels to break up the monotony of a big blue box.
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8:42 pm on June 4, 2012

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iiitronic

If you know anything about construction, that kind of thing doesn’t happen

If you know anything about hacking the life out of whatever you’re building, that kind of thing happens

Accidents happen, man made disasters are created

Get your story straight Donald Jr
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2:18 pm on June 4, 2012

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GRBY

This is ridiculous. The city should ban glass buildings from being built! Otherwise we’ll end up eventually walking down our streets only to find our heads being sliced open from falling glass. This is all 100% preventable! The city needs to put their foot down.

Builders like Lanterra and Trump could care less about public safety, their only goal is to profit from these structures.

Builders need to go back to using real metals and stone finishes, ie: finishes that have proven to be safe and sustainable.
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1:14 pm on June 4, 2012

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Genius

I don’t think it’s that simple. Toronto has recently had issues with stone failing (such as the marble falling off First Canadian Place) and brick (the building with Salad King collapsing at Yonge and Gould).

All buildings have some windows, unless you are proposing people live in windowless brick bunkers?
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6:47 pm on June 4, 2012
cge

The city needs to put its foot down? What foot? There is evidently no view over the building process in Toronto right now and it appears that “the city” is not concerned about anything with respect to buildings except how to squeeze as many as possible into every space.
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9:24 pm on June 4, 2012

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