[SFUVancouver]

I think that there's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" mentality for the addressing the City's energy performance requirements for south- and west-facing walls. If the architect cheaps out and uses window-wall with metal panels or glass spandrel, they are dumped on for doing a half-ass job of architectural design and they're still barely following through with meeting energy performance targets. If they use a "real wall", they typically end up with awkward blank painted facades that weather poorly and wouldn't be the logical design response to their south- and west-facing views. Really, as I see it, their only real response would be to use a combination of tools: punched windows (to lower the % of vision glass), appropriate use of blank walls, and some use of spandrel for window wall units.

For this project, I think that they've done a passable job, but the light-coloured painted concrete will likely weather poorly in our climate and not age all that well. For symmetry, they've essentially duplicated the western elevation on the eastern side, where it isn't needed, but that makes for a prominent blank wall on Spruce Street that's going to be visible forever.