Toronto Festival Tower and tiff Lightbox | 156.96m | 42s | Daniels | KPMB

[Automation Gallery]

CP24 said the building will be returning to a construction site, hoarding will be reinstalled.

No kidding, this is big news, you got every freakin Canadian tv/radio station taking about Toronto's falling glass.

 

[Bogtrotter]

Film fest next month as well, their big moment in the sun- I'm sure they can't be happy with this at all.

 

[TheKingEast]

So glass has fallen from:
Murano
Casa
Bell Lightbox

Anywhere else? Perhaps they used the same trade company or same product. This falling glass thing has happened over the last year. Prior to that, never heard any news about falling glass. I really hope this doesn't interfere with the film festival. Would really be disappointing.

 

[Tewder]

Maybe all festival goers should be provided with an official TIFF parasol to protect them from falling shards of glass. It might create a new fashion statement!

 

[caltrane74]

Time to start making balconies with steel railing again.....

Chicago is windy, and they don't have this problem there.

 

[hawc]

 

[Edward]

Wow now the Festival Tower as well.

 

[hawc]

Did the panel fall off whole? Or did it break up and then fall? I walked right under there 12 hours ago.

 

[grey]

So glass has fallen from:
Murano
Casa
Bell Lightbox

Festival Tower, not Bell Lightbox. The Lightbox is fine and doesn't use the type of glass used on balconies on the tower.

And it probably won't affect TIFF. The Lightbox was running last year when the tower above was still under construction.

 

[marcus_a_j]

Time to start making balconies with steel railing again.....

Chicago is windy, and they don't have this problem there.

I don't believe Chicago is any windier than Toronto. It get's its nickname from politicians yelling at each other (or something like that) back in the day, not from strong air currents.

 

[hawc]

Interesting...

Linda Pinizzotto is chairman of the Ontario Condo Owners’ Association. She said the city needs to get tougher with developers.

“It’s a reflection of the problem of our city giving out building permits way too quickly and not enforcing enough mandates,†she said.

Nalliah Thayabharan is a senior building inspector for the city of Toronto.

He blames the problem at Grosvenor on the use of tempered glass on balconies, which he said developers often use to save money.

“They use nickel sulphide to manufacture tempered glass … it expands with the heat, and then the glass will shatter.â€

 

[cruzin4u]

Interesting...

Nice info hawc. I too am curious where Festival Tower got their glass from. Most of us know that Murano got their glass from a company in Quebec that went out of business (not sure if that had anything to do with the quality of the product). It does seem from the article that developers are trying to save as much money as possible. Sad that to save a buck, they are endangering the lives of people.

Is there no quality control testing with glass? Surely someone had to test the glass to see if it could with stand heat, no? Nalliah mentions that tempered glass will shatter as it expands with heat. So why are they ALLOWED to install such glass on buildings?

 

[Traynor]

We... (and the Media) have jumped to the conclusion that it is inferior materials or installation procedures... Perhaps a new tenant moving in was simply swinging a hammer and it got away from them. The picture they showed on CBC Newsworld showed the bottom half of the glass still in its frame and the top all jagged from the center outwards (as if shattered from an impact). Maybe we should reserve judgment until they release the results from the investigation.

Just a thought.

 

[CityPlaceN1]

I'm pretty sure this wasn't the first time for this to happen at Festival

 

[Traynor]

...Is there no quality control testing with glass? Surely someone had to test the glass to see if it could with stand heat, no? Nalliah mentions that tempered glass will shatter as it expands with heat. So why are they ALLOWED to install such glass on buildings?

That quotation is taken completely out of context...

ALL matter expands (to some degree) with the application of heat.

Tempered glass is a great material for construction, when its specific expansion properties are accounted for.

What was meant to be said is:

Tempered glass expands by a defined percentage when heat is applied and unless allowances for expansion is included, it will shatter. Engineers account for that expansion when designing the brackets that mount the glass.

The implication of the above out-of-context statement is: In the case of Festival Tower, were the brackets designed properly to account for that exapnsion.?