[URBAN NOTE] "Growing Up: Are Toronto’s new condos built to last?"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias recently wrote about a problem with Toronto's condos. Are all those glass walls durable over the long term? And if not, will there be any interest in retrofitting these buildings?

Building experts say resiliency and energy efficiency are going out the window with all those floor-to-ceiling glass walls being installed in the city’s towering condos.

[. . .]

Ted Kesik, a professor of building science at the University of Toronto and an outspoken critic of the condo development industry, says he, too, worries that condo developers care more about profits than ensuring their buildings last.

“I feel sorry for people in buildings like that, because those windows are going to fall out in an extreme weather event. There will be water damage. It’s just going to be a mess.”

Even Toronto’s new chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, allows there’s a problem with the windows’ efficiency.

“I share those concerns,” she says. “We need to be talking about this more as a city: how do we ensure that we do build buildings that have resiliency over the long term?”