Pulling and Pushing the Envelope: Reimagining Toronto’s Failing Glass Towers

Massimo Giannone, Design Stream

Laura Miller, Advisor

Toronto is facing a monumental infrastructural issue: the tectonic failure of almost all condo developments built between 1985 and 2015. It is suspected that within the next 15 years, the majority of Toronto’s condos will be covered in scaffolding in order to access, repair, and reseal failing window wall systems. The image of Toronto’s built environment encased in scaffolding could be a dystopian image speaking of failure, or it could be re-cast as an opportunity to enhance the character, identity, and usefulness of numerous towers. This thesis takes the latter approach, proposing a new, permanent scaffold system – an armature that attaches itself to existing buildings and remediates the city’s failing glass towers. It also provides for new uses and identities to be overlaid on relatively generic towers, addressing their specific requirements for wind and acoustic dampening, and shading and cooling needs. The system would perform as a double façade; the gap between glazing and screen gives way to many productive possibilities, from technical to programmatic to aesthetic. To this end, my thesis redefines Toronto’s urban landscape of the future, addressing not only the performance of necessary scaffolding as remediation of a systemic problem we face, but also, producing a generous and lively architecture in the process.