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The rise and, well, alteration of the glass condo tower

April 19th, 2011 · 18 Comments

Douglas Coupland called Vancouver The City of Glass because of its forest of greenish-glass towers. I always imagined the glass towers were only about trying to maximize views and build modernist.

As I discovered in doing this story, it’s really all about the money. Glass is cheap. But not for much longer.

One, people don’t like the sameness. I’ve heard endless griping in Vancouver about glass towers. People want something different. Concord recognized that a while ago and started putting colours on some of their more recent buildings.

Second, the push for buildings that are not such energy pigs means that something is going to have to change in those glass towers, which require more heating and air-conditioning that buildings with other materials.

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