Toronto Living Shangri-La Toronto | 214.57m | 66s | Westbank | James Cheng

000 said:
Lucky no one was hurt. This is getting out of hand. developers need to be held accountable for stuff like this. It's turning the city into a bit of a joke really. The glass is exposed to high winds and extreme temperatures. can't we pick the right materials for this climate?
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Agreed on all points. I was never scared before this but now we've hit the tipping point for me and I'm going to be paranoid walking past any new project.
 
Ramako said:
I was under the impression that the glass balconies on all these new condos were made of tempered glass and that they shatter into small chunks rather than large shards. Supposedly they'd cause only minor scrapes or cuts if they fell on someone.
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This is my understanding also. I think these incidents sound worse than they actually are. Basically the panel of glass explodes into 1000's of tiny little chunks of glass. It would be annoying to have this shower down on you but I doubt that people are put in danger.
 
I know a couple buildings are going with laminated now. Clear Spirit and Ice are both using it, so even if it does break it won't fall out
 
whatever said:
I know a couple buildings are going with laminated now. Clear Spirit and Ice are both using it, so even if it does break it won't fall out
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I suspect that this will become standard soon enough. I'm surprised it isn't already provided for under the building code.
 
A bit early yet to judge.
I wonder if this will be the same glass problem and is the same glass as those where the glass has been repaired or laminated?
It could be a 1 off thing. I would like to hear the report once it is reviewed.
Still, worrisome trend in the downtown core.

Some places have mine fields. I guess Toronto will have "stuff falling from the sky".
 
Regardless of whether or not the glass breaks into small pieces, if news were broadcast around the world that window/balcony glass falling from a skyscraper actually hit someone, the story would be bad for the city's image. The US media would be first in line and quick to paint a negative picture of our fair city.

I still believe that falling ice poses a greater threat (by far) to one's personal safety, especially in a city like Toronto.

I wonder how much glass is falling from other tall buildings going up around the world..?
 
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Without knowing the facts, I would have to believe that the extreme cold may be fracturing the glass. Add wind and out she comes. Or maybe it was fastened too tight which resulted in stress on the glass...predisposing the glass to fall.

I agree with Dark Side Denizen that falling Ice probably poses a greater threat, only because it happens far more often. Also, it is often an icecycle which is pointed.

To figure out glass from other buildings in the world I would look at cold climates and see if this is the reason though if memory serves some of the glass off other buildings was occuring on warm summer days.
 
There was also another glass falling incident this week at Redpath and Eglinton, but I am not sure it was from a new building
 
interested said:
Without knowing the facts, I would have to believe that the extreme cold may be fracturing the glass. Add wind and out she comes. Or maybe it was fastened too tight which resulted in stress on the glass...predisposing the glass to fall.

I agree with Dark Side Denizen that falling Ice probably poses a greater threat, only because it happens far more often. Also, it is often an icecycle which is pointed.

To figure out glass from other buildings in the world I would look at cold climates and see if this is the reason though if memory serves some of the glass off other buildings was occuring on warm summer days.
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In terms of physics I would guess that the glass shrinks in extreme cold which might cause it to slip or come out of its fastenings which would likely be metal and would shrink too.
 
Let's start building non glass buildings. All of the new buildings look the same more or less. Besides, it'll add variety to the skyline.
 
Does anyone know why our building codes didn't already make laminate glass mandatory? In the end it comes down to cost and how much developers can get away with. If there's nothing telling them they need to use x y z they won't bother. They already face increased costs on everything else. There should never be a situation where balcony glass shrinks too much or expands too much and bursts out of its fastenings! That's crazy bad design issues and/or quality control. Icicle formation is also preventable in various ways, I have seen heat cables effectively used to prevent freezing on the edges roofs and gutters on houses.
 
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The glass isn't shrinking/expanding and popping out of the fittings. What's likely happened in a couple cases is that there were inclusions in the tempered which created stress points which in turn caused the glass to blow out in wind/heat/cold. In a couple cases. I think it's easy to neglect that there's also the human element. If someone drops an ashtray or a beer bottle and shatters a pane below their balcony then yep, you'll end up with glass on the sidewalk.
 
000 said:
Does anyone know why our building codes didn't already make laminate glass mandatory? In the end it comes down to cost and how much developers can get away with. If there's nothing telling them they need to use x y z they won't bother. They already face increased costs on everything else. There should never be a situation where balcony glass shrinks too much or expands too much and bursts out of its fastenings! That's crazy bad design issues and/or quality control. Icicle formation is also preventable in various ways, I have seen heat cables effectively used to prevent freezing on the edges roofs and gutters on houses.
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Our building codes have needed to be upgraded for the longest time but haven't. Developers are going to do the bare minimum.
 
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