Stop Order Issued For Calgary Building
Work remains halted at a downtown Calgary construction site after pieces of glass fell to the street over the weekend.
A window on the 20th floor of the Palliser South tower at 201 10th Ave. S.E. shattered on Saturday, dropping shards of glass on to the sidewalk and cars below. No one was hurt.
It’s the second time this summer that debris has fallen from a highrise construction site in downtown Calgary.
Michelle Krsek, 3, was killed on Aug. 1 when she was struck by a wind-blown piece of sheet metal that fell from the top of the downtown Le Germain development in Calgary. Her father and brother were injured in the accident.
Inspectors with Alberta Occupational Health and Safety examined 20 downtown sites after Krsek’s death — including the Palliser South tower.
“This was one of the buildings that was inspected and at the time, there was no major problems found and so now we’ve got to go back and find out what did happen with that glass,” department spokesman Chris Chodan said on Monday.
“That glass had been installed 10 days ago and it stayed there, so there’s a number of questions now about why did it come loose now, what was wrong, what was the cause of that glass coming down?”
A stop-work order has been issued for the project until every pane of glass has been checked.
“Are the sheets of glass themselves defective? Are they the right kinds of glass to be installed there? How were they secured, what techniques were used — that’s the starting point of the investigation,” Chodan said.
The building’s contractor isn’t commenting, but will release findings of its own inspection later this week.
- Calgary Herald
Financial Deal Ensures Completion Of Halted Vegas Casino “City Center”
Casino operator MGM Mirage says it has agreed with partner Dubai World and the pair’s lenders to finish a US$8.5 billion casino complex on the Las Vegas Strip.
MGM Mirage said Dubai World, the investment arm of the Dubai government, would drop a lawsuit it filed against the Las Vegas-based casino company, which is majority owned by investor Kirk Kerkorian.
The pact secures MGM Mirage’s payment obligations for construction costs with its Circus Circus Las Vegas casino and adjacent land.
MGM Mirage and Dubai World each agreed to fund their remaining payments for CityCenter with letters of credit, and the lenders agreed to immediately fund US$1.8 billion to finish the project, rather than wait until each partner had fully paid its share.
The company said City-Center is now on track to be open by Dec. 9, with the Harmon Hotel & Spa opening in 2010.
“This was the best possible outcome. It’s so vastly superior to any other option that we had to explore as to make us almost giddy with relief and excitement,” MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren said.
Murren said the agreement puts the casino company in the best possible position as it works to restructure its balance sheet, which included more than $13 billion in debt as of the end of last year.
MGM Mirage said hat it had reached a separate agreement with its own lenders to waive payment obligations until June 30, extending a prior agreement by one and a half months.
Murren said the 45-day extension gave the company “more than enough time” to come up with a comprehensive plan to fix its balance sheet.
Murren said the company is well on its way toward solving its debt problems, but he declined to be more specific about the direction MGM Mirage was taking.
All the deals are subject to approval by gambling regulators, MGM Mirage said.
Visit the website for CIty-Center here: http://www.citycenter.com/
Source: Associated Press
Puttin On The Ritz. NOT!!!
Yet another dose of recession reality was handed out yesterday when Vancouver-based developer Holborn Group told buyers who’d bought condominiums in the $500-million Ritz-Carlton project that it was being cancelled. “To get financing, you need a certain amount of presales - and because we didn’t have enough units sold, financing didn’t turn out the way we wanted,” Holborn president Joo Kim Tiah said yesterday.
Holborn had sold 62 of 123 condos in the project, which was to feature a 20-storey luxury hotel topped by 40 storeys of condos. Those sales didn’t meet the threshold of 75 ( minimum sales) that the company, and potential lenders, were looking for, so the project was put on hold indefinitely.
Source: The Globe And Mail
Now Serving New Jersey
True North Drafting is happy to announce that we are officially providing glazing shop drawings to New Jersey. Our first project was a new branch of JPMorgan Chase, located in Brick, NJ. The project was a mixture of curtain-wall and storefront systems. Our shop drawings were completed in two days and all drawings were transferred electronically using e-mail and our FTP server.
What Is An FTP Site and Why Does True North Drafting Use One?
FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. As the name suggests, FTP is used to transfer files between computers on a network, such as the Internet. You can use FTP to exchange files between computer accounts, to transfer files between an account and a desktop computer, or to access software archives on the Internet. What started out as a simple way to send large files between our customers has gradually evolved into a document management tool that makes life simple and cheaper for everyone involved with the project.
We were recently rewarded a project for a new branch of Chase Bank in New Jersey. Even as little as five years ago, our customer (the glazing contractor) would have had to send us a complete set of architectural drawings by courier. This would add cost and at least a couple of days to ship them here. Instead we contacted the general contractor and they simply uploaded the drawings in electronic format (usually cad or pdf) to our FTP site, and within minutes we are starting work on the drawings!
After we have completed the shop drawings, we simply post them on our FTP site and our customer can review, download or print the drawings from the comfort of their office chair instantly. They are accessible 24 hours a day and can be shared with anyone who our customer feels inclined to distribute the secure password and login information to. So the next time a sub-trade calls our customer and requests a set of the glazing shop drawings, they can simply direct them to the FTP site for their own copy.
I should point out that True North’s FTP site can be accessed simply by using any internet browser (like the one that you’re using right now to read this blog), but there are plenty of free and cheap FTP programs that make the process even easier and faster. I prefer a program called Cute FTP. You can get it here: http://www.cuteftp.com/
“What Actions are you taking to protect your business in 2009?”
True North Drafting Will be featuring comments from glazing contractors located throughout various parts of North America in response to the current state of the economy. This week we hear from Phil Zeutenhorst, President of Lacey Glass in Washington.
” Like everyone else, we’re tightening our belts and watching costs more closely. Our focus has always been toward natural daylighting, so the push towards green building has helped us to maintain a good backlog. We are being careful to follow up with the leads we do get. We promote our expertise and experience as a way for the general contractor to control costs and stay out of trouble”
Source: Glass Magazine 2009
Lacey, Washington
Blast From The Past
I found this old photo today of the very first week that I started True North Drafting back in 1995. Check out that old-school digitizer. That’s what I used instead of a mouse back then. And I think that’s a 14″ monitor on that desk. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that mess of cords under my desk. This was a condo in North Burnaby that I was living in while my wife attended UVIC and I did nothing except sleep, eat and breathe shop drawings.
Port Mann Bridge Plans Unveiled Today
The new bridge will replace the existing 45-year-old Port Mann Bridge and will include new RapidBus service that will allow commuters to travel all the way from Langley to Burnaby SkyTrain in 23 minutes, said Campbell.
Once the new bridge is complete, the old one will be removed, saving an estimated $180 million in maintenance, rehabilitation and seismic upgrades that would have been required.
In addition to RapidBus service, the new bridge will be built to accommodate the installation of light rapid transit line underneath the main deck at a future date.
The budget also includes $50 million to expand networks for cyclists and pedestrians. The bridge will be built by Connect BC Development Group with the government in a public-private partnership.
Construction was originally expected to start in the fall, but the project was delayed as the province struggled to secure a deal to finance the project.
Source: CBC News
Will that be Visa or Mastercard?
TND is happy to announce that we are now accepting Visa and Mastercard as a payment option. To get this set up on your account, please contact Kelly at tnd@telus.net or at 604-524-6580.
No More Snail Mail…
Feb 1 marks the first day that all invoices coming from TND will either be e-mailed or faxed. Thanks to our new accounting software, we are now able to e-mail invoices directly from the book keeper’s computer. This will give the customer the option of either printing the invoice to archive it, or to simply save the invoice in electronic format once payment has been processed. Not only will this cut down on the cost of paper, envelopes, stamps and toner, but it will also streamline the billing process and eliminate the possibility of delays in the postal service.
