Prominent Toronto developer Harry Stinson said yesterday that it is a mistake to use marble on the outside of a building, as the Reichmanns did when Olympia and York Developments built First Canadian Place in the early 1970s.
As marble is porous, it is inclined to weaken and soften as it absorbs water, and the evidence that that is what has been happening can be seen by all who look carefully at the marble panels on the building, he said.
"Some of them are quite stained, because they are the originals. Then you can see varieties of different shades of white all over the building, because they have had to replace [the panels]," Mr. Stinson said.
Mr. Stinson is not alone in his criticism of marble.
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In an issue of Canadian Geographic Magazine in 1991, Tonu Altosaar, a partner in the Bregman and Hamann architects firm that designed the building, was quoted as saying that the white marble cladding, chosen by design consultant and New York architect, Edward Stone, is perhaps somewhat "soft" for Toronto's climate.
"It reacts to extreme temperature change," Mr. Altosaar told the magazine. "In the long run, it's probably better [used] as an interior material in this part of the world."
Mr. Stinson was also critical of the system by which heavy stone slabs are attached to a building with metal clips that have been designed to a minimal standard set by the provincial building code. "To me, it is an absurd technology, hanging very heavy things on the outside of buildings with just little widgets."
While stone was hung on the outside of older buildings, such as the limestone on Commerce Court North, "the difference is that some guy in 1930 would have used some sucker of an angle iron, and he would have put 14 bolts in it."
Fast facts
INNOVATIVE CONSTRUCTION
Olympia & York Developments devised an intricate construction system to finish First Canadian Place's lobby before completing the building, and to move tenants into lower floors before upper ones were finished. Just 16 months separated the first steel column and the arrival of tenants. The techniques, which saved 1.3 million work-hours, included:
A 45-ton, heavy-duty truck elevator, which could handle 100 vehicles a day, delivered trucks to the largest turntable in the world, which aligned them with unloading bays that mechanically handled materials to a preassigned floor.
Radio-controlled hoppers could deliver concrete at the rate of 80 tons an hour to the 72nd floor.
The company pioneered the use of climbing elevators in self-contained 12-floor cages.
A double exterior scaffold doubled the speed of enclosing the building.
A computerized control room monitored and scheduled the process to within minutes.
The building's exterior white marble and 9,000 windows are cleaned by an automatic system that runs on rails down the side of the building. The first of its kind in Canada, it can clean all four sides, 675,550 square feet, in about 60 hours.
RISING TO THE TOP
The Reichmanns' decision to project quality and prestige into FCP paid off. Today, the building boasts some of the country's best-known law firms, financial services and consultants. Standing as the second-highest building in Canada (after the CN tower), its roof is a prime location for the antennas of such companies as CBC-FM, Rogers and AT&T Canada.
Source: Towers of Debt by Peter Foster
Was this thing glued up there or not? And are
more going to fall?
Law clerk Melissa Szmik, 26, who works in the nearby Exchange Tower
This is reminiscent of
the ice falling off the
CN Tower. This is the summertime version.
At least it's warm.
Bike courier Robert Anderson
If something came
down and killed
someone, they'd be in
a lot more trouble.
Tax specialist Brett Crawford, 29
Henny Penny was
right.
Anonymous pedestrian
hurrying down Bay Street
At 289.9 metres and 72 storeys, it's the tallest office building in Canada. On a blustery day, the tower sways nearly two thirds of a metre at the top. Each floor of the building is clad in 600 tonnes of Carrera marble from Italy's Tuscany region. The piece of tile was about a metre by a half metre and weighed about 140 kilograms. The tile fell from the west face on the 54th floor and landed on a flat roof above a restaurant.
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