Straube provides expert opinion on throw-away buildings

“Now is about when we should start seeing trouble with 1990s buildings, with the glass starting to get fogged up, the rubber gaskets and sealants starting to fail,” John Straube, a Waterloo architecture and civil and environmental engineering professor, told a CBC reporter for a special radio and television series investigating the short-term durability and long-term costs of Toronto’s glass-walled condos. Straube, an international expert in retrofitting, said many condo owners don’t ask the right questions about the construction of their buildings and have no idea about future maintenance costs. “Do you want a building that is going to appreciate over the long term? Do you want a building that will be comfortable and energy-efficient? If so, you need to ask tougher questions of the marketplace.”