Uhhh, I know you enjoy being contrarian..........

But a mayor who can override the will of 2/3 of Council doesn't actually give any increase in independence from the province at all, not one iota. What it provides is authoritarianism, period, full-stop.
Off Topically: And one that seems to use the appeal to hypocrisy a lot...


...but enough about that! Keep the pics rolling please. Especially the corner ones...Xmas cookies for those! <3
 
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...but enough about that! Keep the pics rolling please. Especially the corner ones...Xmas cookies for those! <3

What kind of X-Mas Cookies? I'm very big on soft-baked gingerbread cookies with a strong taste of ginger and finely minced crystalized ginger and sugar on top. Just sayin.
 
Dec 20, 2022

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I have a question & concern.... if these decorative things (the outside gold bracing) are hollow and they look like they only clip on.... how durable would these be long term? Like water & ice can easily build up inside them, clips could rust, wind could eventually play an issue too and maybe even unwanted sound and vibrations from wind. I would like to know more about how they are fully secured to the building and any sealing used to prevent these issues if it's known?

42abd75b-d038-457f-b33b-7499e5428a0c_1_201_a-jpeg.446539
 
One would hope that they had vetted for all durability, vector and mechanical issues this process and materials used poses for this decorum...

...then as E Condos demonstrated with the noise/wind issues with their choice balcony walls at first, that's not always the case. >.<
 
Guess it's only bad when the mayor's not progressive lol. Anyway.
Strong mayor powers do not necessarily equate to minority rule. I actually thought the first version of the powers proposed were fine. The one that Tory asked for (ability to push things through with only a third of council) seems egregious - and I’m not sure what he thought he’d achieve with that.

Separately, it seems obvious to me that the province did this in order to make the municipalities carry the water on the housing file. A more straightforward option would be:
  • Unilaterally upzone across the province and wear the political cost early in the term (it’s clear they used this strategy with the Greenbelt removals)
  • Allow big-city mayors to have limited strong powers with 2/3rds Council veto
  • Remove DCs for a range of housing but offset with uploading some social-services costs
The current situation seems like a poor solution IMO. You have minority rule, you still have a housing zoning problem, you’ve introduced a municipal funding hole and given mayors the opportunity to define the narrative, and the structural problem of municipal finances still remains.

EDIT: on the last point, I’m happy for municipalities to have the ability to pay for social services by levying a sales/income tax OR for the province to upload a greater portion of the cost of providing social services. It’s kinda crazy to me that social services are paid outta property taxes - they seem completely mismatched.
 
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I have a question & concern.... if these decorative things (the outside gold bracing) are hollow and they look like they only clip on.... how durable would these be long term? Like water & ice can easily build up inside them, clips could rust, wind could eventually play an issue too and maybe even unwanted sound and vibrations from wind. I would like to know more about how they are fully secured to the building and any sealing used to prevent these issues if it's known?
This is pretty typical cladding system for buildings. It's called a rainscreen wall system so the panels are made to not be waterproof but to just stop driving water forces and to protect the WRB / Air Barrier (the black felty looking stuff on the Curtain Wall system) from UV exposure. There usually isn't too much of a concern for ice and water build up as they are made to let the water free flow through (just without driving force of wind / rain). This is just a very fancy bronze / champagne coloured version of how 90 or so % of buildings are made today so I'm not too concerned with the performance.
 
I think this is the first time we've seen this formwork around the perimeter of a floor (level 11):

View attachment 446582

I think the same form was utilised when they poured the rest of the 11th floor. They will likely do the same on the 17th and other floors that don’t have the corner pillars. I think in these floors the curtain walls are attached differently and thus the different form/attachment points.
 
Well, my in-jest installation prediction was incorrect, which is exciting! Perhaps they’ll remove the wrap on New Years 😉. Unless, of course, that is the real colour, in which case I’m moving to Alberta. I mean, we saw photos of the actual materials in previews, there was a front page story... there’s no way that’s the final colour.
If you like Cactus Club, do not move to Alberta!

42
 
I have a question & concern.... if these decorative things (the outside gold bracing) are hollow and they look like they only clip on.... how durable would these be long term? Like water & ice can easily build up inside them, clips could rust, wind could eventually play an issue too and maybe even unwanted sound and vibrations from wind. I would like to know more about how they are fully secured to the building and any sealing used to prevent these issues if it's known?

42abd75b-d038-457f-b33b-7499e5428a0c_1_201_a-jpeg.446539
this is thicker then you think and has drainage holes.
 
I have a question & concern.... if these decorative things (the outside gold bracing) are hollow and they look like they only clip on.... how durable would these be long term? Like water & ice can easily build up inside them, clips could rust, wind could eventually play an issue too and maybe even unwanted sound and vibrations from wind. I would like to know more about how they are fully secured to the building and any sealing used to prevent these issues if it's known?

I'm not installing those specific panels, but the panels generally have a hook or return on at least one side so that they kind of snap into place, and then for something that big they're additionally screwed as a backup.

The panels and clips and tracks are aluminium, so no rust there. The fasteners are likely galvanized. They do think about these things.

And panels that big often have a compression gasket involved somewhere near the mating surfaces, to mitigate rattle and noise and such. Or sometimes foam tape, or sometimes the track itself is isolated.

And those panels may not be completely hollow. They may have stiffeners concealed within. Lots of variations on these things, but they all work similarly
 

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