World Watch
LATITUDE
TORONTO TOWER WILL BE CANADA’S TALLEST BUILDING — FOR NOW
The statistics are from a 2014 global higher education report released by the United States National Science Foundation.
You could strain your neck on this one. Visitors to Toronto will need to look a long way up if they hope to see the top of a 92-storey condo tower on King Street West, expected to be under construction in 2017, Canadian Consulting Engineer (Toronto) reports. It will top out at 304 metres and will be Canada’s tallest building — for the time being. As part of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre redevelop- ment, two 326-metre towers have been proposed by Oxford Prop- erties Group. The current record holder is First Canadian Place in Toronto, which is 298 metres tall. Back to the condo development: Design is by famed architect Frank Gehry. The developer is Peter Kofman of Projectcore Inc., in conjunction with David Mirvish of Mirvish + Gehry. Features include a reinforced concrete, shear-wall structure and special design elements to help break up the effects of wind. A second tower in the project will reach 82 storeys.
ENGINEERS AIM TO REDUCE HOCKEY CONCUSSIONS
Concerns about head injuries in hockey continue to grow, from minor hockey up to the pros. With that in mind, biomedical engineering researchers at Virginia Tech are testing hockey helmets to identify those with the strongest potential to minimize the risk of concussions, the university reports on its website. Scientists and engineers at the school are developing a five-point rating scale, dubbed the STAR system, which will measure a helmet’s ability to reduce the risk of concussion. The challenge is to account for the many different scenarios, including impacts with arena glass, boards and ice, says Steven Rowson, an assistant professor. Testing methods include placing instruments in hockey helmets to collect head-impact data. Sensors will also measure linear and rotational head acceleration, viewed as critical in determining concussion risk. This research follows 10 years of research at Virginia Tech on football helmet safety, which resulted in a five-point safety scale for football helmets.
PANAMA CANAL EXPANSION ON THE HOME STRETCH
One of the world’s greatest engineering projects, the Panama Canal, is gearing up for major milestones in 2015. With the US $5.25-billion expansion expected to be operational by early 2016, the focus now is on flooding a third set of locks by June. The Institute of Civil Engineering (London) notes that the project includes “the largest water-saving basins ever designed or built.”
SILVER LINING The sunflower solar power parabolic dish is covered with 36 elliptic mirrors made of 0.2-millimetre-thick, recyclable plastic foil with a silver coating.
That’s a little thicker than a chocolate bar wrapper. -computer rendering courtesy Airlight Energy/dsolar
WATER WORLD Plans for an underwater hotel have been in the works for more than a decade. If it ever goes ahead, business should be good — 150,000 potential guests have already put their names on a waiting list. -computer rendering courtesy Poseidon Undersea Resorts
SPRING 2015 PEG | 57
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