Today the stage was lowered down to the 42th floor, so 5 floors are ready now.
Personal impressions of the new windows after living one week with them:
- No way to see inside. The glass is like a mirror.
- Very clear view looking from inside. The fabulous views are not impacted by the very slightly darker glass at all.
- The glass seems to match the old one and the final results will look awesome.
- Inside temperature doesn't seem to raise much on a sunny day. This was the major point for the whole project.
- I can't tell any difference in the level of street noise. It feels exactly the same as it was (which was not an issue for us).
- Very happy with the project and how it has been executed.
Glad this all worked out. Thanks again for the in depth reporting as well.
I agree that a balcony would be nice, but how often do people really use one? Almost all Downtown towers have balconies, but it is quite rare to see people out there enjoying them. Mostly they seem like an extra place to store your junk.
A rooftop patio would be great, just like Melville has. The small park in front of the tower is nice, but not private and Burrards traffic noise doesn't make it that enjoyable, although otherwise it is nicely planned and maintained.
Interesting piece of information regarding the gas stoves.
I enjoy my west facing balcony. I'm usually out there in the morning with a coffee and in the afternoon sun with a beer. Blessed with a great view of Canada Place, a bit of Stanley Park and Lions Gate along with Grouse.
I agree that a balcony would be nice, but how often do people really use one? Almost all Downtown towers have balconies, but it is quite rare to see people out there enjoying them. Mostly they seem like an extra place to store your junk.
A place to store bird poop (and something else to clean) was my general impression of balconies when I was in the market.
Brad Lamb estimates that for a 12-storey, 150-unit tower that costs $30-million to build, balconies represent a cost of about $2-million. Balconies can also diminish the sellable square footage, for a loss he estimates at $4-million in revenue.
Holy sh....6.67% of a building's construction costs can go towards just the balconies?
You beat me to it, Built Form. I also have some more photos coming later today that are taken this morning. The building looked really good in the sunshine this morning...
Alright, here we go with an update from today. They are now working on the 38th floor and only six more floors to go. The project is on track and the windows will be replaced by end of August. Dismantling the crane will surely take another month or two on top of that.
As we have already seen, the new glazing looks very good.