The headline of this story has been amended to reflect that the glass panels broke before falling.
A North Vancouver resident is speaking out after two large glass balcony patio panels smashed and fell from his almost-new apartment building.
On Dec. 17, a 15th-floor panel at Intergulf Development’s Hunter at Lynn Creek project broke. At the time, Matt Smith was already pursuing the developer and property manager for deficiencies in the construction.
Then on Feb. 6, a panel on the ninth floor, right above Smith’s unit, smashed, sending a cascade of broken glass onto his patio and every other one down to the public walkway at ground level, he says.
“There are young families there. There are kids playing in these areas amongst this broken glass. There’s the risk that [one of these] falls and lands on somebody,” he said. “Of course, the safety issue is No. 1.”
Smith has had his patio professionally cleaned twice but he and his wife are still continuing to find small pieces of glass, he said.
Smith, who works in construction, said there should be new inspections done by a qualified, independent engineer as well as an audit of the building envelope. In the meantime, he and his wife won’t be using their balcony, he said.
“Is it safe? I don’t think that it will be. But we need an inspection to know that,” he said.
Any reports completed on behalf of the developer or strata should be made available to the building’s residents, he added.
Despite the worrying incidents and no shortage of attempts by Smith to get action, he said there has been virtually no official communication from the developer, property manager, or District of North Vancouver to acknowledge the concerns or warn of safety issues.
“That’s a grave concern for me,” he said. “We’d like to see an investigation report into what happened, what the hazards are, if any, going forward, and what’s going to be done to mitigate those.”
In a statement, Intergulf says the tempered glass panels broke in place, rather than simply falling out of their fittings.
“We’ve had a third-party engineer as well as the contractor go and inspect the railings where this glass broke and so far, they’ve found there’s been no issues or no evidence of any problems with the installation itself. But to be thorough, we’re having them go through every single home in the building,” the statement said. “We’re trying to eliminate whatever it could be.”
Pieces of the broken glass are also being taken for analysis, according to the company, and it’s a possibility the panels were broken after being struck by a blunt object.
Any conclusions the company finds will be shared with the strata council immediately.
Smith said he and his wife selected the location because they believed it would be a good place to start a family but now they are having second thoughts.
“That’s not the place to raise a kid, as it stands right now. Unless they fix all these deficiencies and make the place suitable, we’re going to end up having to move,” he said.
