Toronto Aura at College Park | 271.87m | 78s | Canderel | Graziani + Corazza

they are still only testing the lighting guys again no where near completed. but have faith. this will be a very net effect and look just like its render. assuming all goes well and we dont wnd up with a light feature like trump. is it on every night now or are they still working out the bugs?
 
I would love it if the lighting was animated, moving slowly from top to bottom, like falling rain. Movement is almost always a good thing.

Might look fun, but it would definitely have the chance of looking like streaming christmas icicles.
 
The lights do extend lower than what was seen during the latest test. This webcam photo from earlier in the year confirms it.

Image originally posted by someMidTowner

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Out of curiosity, how long will the windows last on the building before they will need to be replaced? Seals break down, leaks, and gravity pulling the glass down (as in thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom of a pane), etc.. That's a lot of windows and glass.
 
and gravity pulling the glass down (as in thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom of a pane), etc..

Oh, that old myth.

No doubt though, there will be plenty of failures in these windows over time. It's the same in any window-wall condo in Toronto, over the span of 10-20 years. Hopefully the stricter reserve fund regulations for condo boards these days will ensure they can eventually be replaced.

That said, it's very depressing that in an age of a looming climate change crisis, we accept the use of window-wall systems that begin to wither and fail within 1-2 decades. (The same is not true for curtainwall.) It really hurts the energy performance of the building over time, and even the greenest buildings going up today are relatively vast consumers of energy.
 
So which building will get its lighting operational first, Aura or Trump?

lol. At this point in time it's not even a contest. If Trump wanted to get it's lights fixed, it would have done so a long time ago. They sporadically work on it, but that's about it. Perhaps there are financial or political obstacles associated with that mess. And I don't think there is any pressure to get them operational.
Aura's lighting looks to be up and running in and around the time of completion. The question is, when/how long the lights will be up for. I also don't think they will be lit up that bright when all is said and done (i could be wrong, but they look really bright).
I see residents on the upper floors being disturbed by them on evenings where there is fog or even rain.
I hope I'm wrong though, cause at these heights, those lights really transform this into a landmark.
 
Oh, that old myth.

No doubt though, there will be plenty of failures in these windows over time. It's the same in any window-wall condo in Toronto, over the span of 10-20 years. Hopefully the stricter reserve fund regulations for condo boards these days will ensure they can eventually be replaced.

That said, it's very depressing that in an age of a looming climate change crisis, we accept the use of window-wall systems that begin to wither and fail within 1-2 decades. (The same is not true for curtainwall.) It really hurts the energy performance of the building over time, and even the greenest buildings going up today are relatively vast consumers of energy.

I'm curious, where did you get 10-20 years from? The seals in five windows are still fine in my suite, installed in 1972.
 
I'm curious, where did you get 10-20 years from? The seals in five windows are still fine in my suite, installed in 1972.

We are in a low-rise building, twelve storeys with window wall, and a taller component, of fifteen storeys with curtain wall. Our just completed Reserve Fund study, including consideration of the small amount of initial post-construction fall-out over the past few years, forecasts a window system lifespan, before complete refurbishment of the window and curtain wall components is needed, of 45 years.

This may not be typical of high rise towers, as my understanding is that building flex is one of the key contributors to window seal failure, however I suspect that the 10 - 20 years number is just someone's (perhaps) wild imagination.
 

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