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Edmonton’s tallest skyscraper is being treated with a special “safety film” after several glass windowpanes fell from the structure.
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Four glass panels tumbled from the 66-storey Stantec Tower over the summer, in at least two cases shattering on the street below.
The tower, the tallest building in Canada outside Toronto, is the focal point of the ICE District, the downtown redevelopment centred on Rogers Place and the Edmonton Oilers.
“ICE District Shared Facilities can confirm there have been incidents involving a small number of windowpanes at Stantec Tower over the last few months,” the company said in a statement. “The last recorded incident, however, was in August 2021.”
“As a precautionary measure, a safety film is currently being installed that keeps the glass in place.” The company described the film as a plastic film cut to fit each window and frame.
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The building has installed scaffolding around entranceways and over nearby sidewalks while the film is being installed.
“The safety of ICE District tenants, residents, guests and the public is paramount,” the statement said.
Occupants began moving into Stantec Tower in 2018. The first were commercial tenants occupying floors 1-30, including the tower’s namesake engineering firm. The SKY Residences — a mix of apartments and condos — were granted occupancy on the remaining floors in August 2019.
Several windows have since broken or fallen from the structure.
On May 30, 2021, residential tenants were informed of a crack on a window on the west side of the building. “While the glass is holding, we advise all residents with west facing balconies to not use them at this time,” stated an email from the property manager, provided to Postmedia.
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On June 25, a section of glass fell from the 30th floor and shattered on 102 Street. Police closed the street while crews cleaned up. At the time, ICE District spokesman Tim Shipton told Postmedia that a window had broken.
A few days later, on June 30, residents were advised another pane of glass on the tower’s northwest corner had fallen. That same day, the board of the condominium corporation opted to close the 30th floor rooftop patio “while a full assessment is conducted of the building envelope.”
Another pane of glass broke on July 28. While police were called to assist with pedestrian and vehicle traffic outside the building, the cracked window did not ultimately fall.
In an email, City of Edmonton spokesperson Karen Burgess said the city is “monitoring the situation.”
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“It’s the City’s understanding that the condo stratas have reached out to an engineer to conduct a building assessment in response to the incident of glass window panes falling in June 2021,” Burgess said. “Shortly after the incident, a covered walkway was installed to help ensure overhead protection for pedestrians while the assessment is undertaken.”
“It will be the responsibility of the condo stratas to ensure that they action any remediation measures identified in the engineer’s assessment,” she added. “If the condo stratas don’t take the action necessary to address the issue, the city does have the authority under the Safety Codes Act to issue an order compelling the condo stratas to remediate the issues as outlined in their contracted engineer’s assessment.”
The tower previously made headlines in the fall of 2019 when high winds repeatedly blew a hanging platform carrying two maintenance workers against the tower’s glass exterior. Stantec and the adjacent JW Marriott have been praised for their architecture, winning an ENR Global best project award for retail/mixed-use development last year.
To evoke the Oilers logo, the tower’s architects opted to use blue glass rather than green, which is cheaper.
