I’ve been writing lately about the threat of leaky condo buildings in Condoland due to Window Wall technology and more specifically the poor installation of this Window Wall technology.
The “shadow threat” rests with the fact that their life span is only 15 to 20 years!
Can someone do the math here!
Since 2000 when Window Wall technology came to the market Condoland alone has been pumping out over 20 condo units made of this stuff!
That’s over 325,000 consumers holding real estate that will face a major capital expenditure requirement to replace their walls in under 20 years!
And that’s if these Window Walls are installed properly.
Now, here’s where the rubber meets the road.
Aura at College Park, a new Canderal Stoneridge high-rise high density condo is yet another gleaming example of the standard of workmanship put into these glass towers.
Today’s photos show, what appears to me (I’m not an engineer) to be breaches in Aura’s (a brand new building) Window Wall “envelope” that suggest to me, some legitimacy relating to CBC’s presented theory “following heavy overnight rain” adding potential legitimacy to the theory of improperly installed Window Walls!
I’ve written many times about my lack of confidence in Canderal Stoneridge, (having had delivered numerous clients in two of their developments, DNA in King West Village and the Townhouses at College Park (or “Parkview Townhouses” as they were called) so I’m not going to get into it here.
I was reading CBC’s News site and wasn’t surprised to read: “More than a week ago, all elevators went down at the Aura condominium tower on Yonge Street, south of College Street following heavy overnight rain”.
Aura is actually two separate condominiums.
The lower component is done in a quality “Hybrid Curtain Wall” (I am told by industry experts) with the upper condo done in the cheaper Window Wall technology that I’ve been warning my readers about here at simplycharles.com.
CBC’s article goes on to say that “pipes burst“, so we can’t be sure of exactly what caused the damage to all the elevators (I gave up on high rises a long time ago and have been a strong believer in townhouses ever since) but even having all the elevators working you will play the waiting game, so imagine this high rise, high-density (heavily laden toward small suites with big units up top) building pouring out using less than 1/3 of its elevators, potentially for months!
The standing joke around College Park (and DNA for that matter) is that this constant conundrum of drama around poor construction is known as: “Canderal Quality“, with facial expressions that consistently show sarcasm!
And College Park’s (both towers I & II) have consistent elevator problems and other construction issues.
That’s what you get when you have a developer with a “lowest bidder” construction mentality.
Developers build “to the minimum Building Code Requirement” and will fight you if you try (as I have legally)
For the damage to have been caused by rain, then my blogs about Window Wall technology failing due to poor or improper installation should scare the hell out of you if you own a condo built since 2000!
And if it is “burst pipes” then it’s just another sign of less than quality workmanship, based on building glass towers that generate hundreds of million of dollars for developers and Municipal Governments based on “lowest bid contracts”.
I don’t have anything against Condoland and I certain am a capitalist and like to see successful people make lots of money.
But in Condoland it’s a one way street!
Everyone makes out like bandits and the consumer is left holding the bag.
Can’t we just give the poor unsuspecting (actually not unsuspecting as they suspect that their government is protecting them against misleading and untruthful advertising, bait and switch game playing in sales, stupid on-sided contracts, and all . . .!
Would it really be asking too much to have the Condo Act actually “protect the consumer” instead of the developer and property managers?
Would it be asking too much for Tarion to actually “protect the consumer” instead of the developer?
Would it be asking too much to require developers to build a “superior product to the minimum standard” under the Building Code?
Would it be asking too much to have proper sound attenuation installed especially when consumers are paying upwards of $800 per square foot?
What about proper ventilation or plumbing?
Why does the consumer, who is the only paying anything here, always given the short end of the stick and no-one, not the Federal Government, not the Provincial Government, not the Municipal Government . . . . . no-one, ever stand up for them?
So now, consumers have bought into these “pipe dreams” (pun intended) and own their “dream home in the sky in Aura” and there is only 1/3 of the elevators available “possibly due to rain“, which means the “envelope of the building may be compromised“.
The Toronto Star just covered this issue as well expanding it beyond Aura to a rather consistent Condoland-wide issue.
You couldn’t get me to buy in a high rise.
My many, many townhouse-buyer clients frequently thank me for explaining the inevitability of this high rise madness and future high demand for townhouses.
I’m Charles
