Toronto Form Condos | 50.59m | 14s | Tridel | a—A

Not sure if anyone knows the answer to this, but is the amount of spandrel we see in Toronto normal? I know we'd all love to see better materials in all buildings, but I'm curious if this is a general global construction theme right now or if Toronto has just allowed it to happen more than other cities. Thanks if anyone knows.
 
Lyphe said:
Not sure if anyone knows the answer to this, but is the amount of spandrel we see in Toronto normal? I know we'd all love to see better materials in all buildings, but I'm curious if this is a general global construction theme right now or if Toronto has just allowed it to happen more than other cities. Thanks if anyone knows.
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No
 
Lyphe said:
Not sure if anyone knows the answer to this, but is the amount of spandrel we see in Toronto normal? I know we'd all love to see better materials in all buildings, but I'm curious if this is a general global construction theme right now or if Toronto has just allowed it to happen more than other cities. Thanks if anyone knows.
Click to expand...
A large part of the quantity of spandrel is due to our window efficiency regulations. Only 40% of building envelope can be vision glass - which means the other 60% is going to have to be opaque using some material. Cheapest just to use spandrel rather than precast, masonry, aluminum panels, etc so that's used the most often. I don't believe these regulations apply to curtain wall projects though, but don't quote me on that one because it's my guess an educated guess considering that new curtain wall buildings often don't seem to have any spandrel, like CIBC Square. Or perhaps they get an exemption to allow for no spandrel. Not sure.

What can't be excused is the quality and colouring of the spandrel. There is no excuse for using light grey spandrel other than laziness and lack of pride for your project.
 
Curtain wall is a much higher performing and energy efficient window system than a typical window wall system, so curtain walls are exempt from the 40% vision glass requirement.
While Tridel builds nice quality buildings most of their projects are plagued with questionable exterior cladding choices and spandrel use. This would have been a unique standout sophisticated-looking building if they would have simply chosen better contrasting colours rather than many shades of non-committal Toronto grey, but so far this is unique for all the wrong reasons.
It looks like an office building that ran out of the same exterior cladding, or reminds me of those awful plastic vertical window blinds with broken portions of slats out of position. It’s a mess.
 
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Easily one of the most intriguing monstrosities of recent years.

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I'd give this polarizing structure a B minus. The sum of its parts do build towards a heavy armour-like and busy composition. But I find the spandrel to be relatively inoffensive and gets balanced out by the glass and tone of the other opaque pieces. On a bright sunny day with plenty of natural light shining on it, it doesn't look too bad up close in person.
 
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