Interesting article on everyone's favourite paper about all the drama behind why the display on the Gold House tower never went on, or at least why it never stayed on after they initially tested it, and how it's now escalated all the way to a Supreme Court petition:-
At least now we have an idea why it's remained dark, and it's also encouraging to see the City actually pressing them to have it turned on like they pledged to have it and was agreed upon during their application process :-
Source:-
https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/bu...-metrotown-led-screen-going-dark-8279580
Quote:
A giant, three-storey, mesh LED screen on the side of a Burnaby Metrotown condo tower that hasn't lit up since 2021 has become the subject of a legal battle.
.....
Celebrated as the largest non-commercial urban art LED display in North America when the tower was complete in 2020, the screen was envisioned as a public art canvas and promised to be a dramatic addition to the city's vaunted Beresford Art Walk.
After lighting up Metrotown for about a month, however, the screen went blank.
A petition filed by the Gold House strata in B.C. Supreme Court this week sheds light on why.
In 2021, the owners of two fourth-storey units "unilaterally removed" transformers from their lots needed to make the screen operable, according to allegations in the petition.
"Due to the removal of the transformers, the digital screen is currently inoperable," states the petition.
The strata says the building's developer, Rize Alliance Properties, and the City of Burnaby had a covenant agreeing Rize would install the giant screen as a public art installation in exchange for rezoning approvals.
When the building was finished, they entered a second covenant to ensure owners wouldn't do anything that would "interfere with the functioning of the digital screen," according to the petition.
Because of that covenant, the strata's bylaws prohibit any alteration to strata lots that would "adversely interfere with the digital screen."
In February 2023, the strata says it was contacted by the city's lawyers demanding the strata "take immediate action to make the digital screen operable once more."
Between April and June 2023, Rize retained a contractor who inspected all the units on the fourth floor and found the transformers had been removed in only two units: 403 and 405, owned by Hope Health Holdings Ltd. and a numbered company (1341094 Ltd.) respectively.
Neither of the owners has been co-operative, according to the petition.
Both have taken the position the covenant is illegal and the transformers were illegally installed, the petition says, and both have now refused further access to their units.
The city is threatening legal action, according to the petition, but the strata says it can't carry out its obligations under the bylaws and covenant because of the owners.
The strata has applied to the court for injunctions compelling the owners to allow inspections and work to be done to fix the screen.
It is also asking for declarations that the owners breached the strata’s bylaws by removing the transformers and not allowing the inspections.
The petition also asks the court to find the owners liable for "all reasonable costs involved in repairing the digital screen caused by their tampering and removal of the transformers."
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4th storey seems to indicate it's one of the Office units occupants - as do to the names associated with them in the article.
So it seems like a couple of the businesses didn't wan't the displays lighting up outside their offices.
Whenever I pass by on the skytrain it seems like at least some of those units are dental offices - although we can't be certain that it's the same units that were housing the disabled transformers.
I gotta say, that's not a good spot of design by the designers of the building to locate critical electrical components within a unit that would require the unit owner's permission to maintain or even have them turned on.
Rather than have them in a more common (but secured) area.
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