Before shovels even broke ground at 140 Carleton St. in Fredericton, the soon-to-be complete curvy, all-glass facade building was the talk of the city. 

“It’ll be the sexiest building Fredericton seen built in a long time,” said Jeff Yerxa, president and CEO of Ross Ventures Ltd. in September 2016 when trying to sell Frederictonians on the concept and design of the building.

The five-storey glass building sparked controversy from bird lovers who were concerned about birds crashing into the glass.  

“A regular building with regular windows is one thing, but one that’s completely made of glass right beside some trees,” said Vanessa Roy-McDougall, executive director of Nature NB, “that was a huge concern for us because there’s no way birds are not going to be hitting this building.”

Yerxa said the company heard the concerns and consulted with guidelines in Toronto, to deal with the potential threat to birds, and added special laser-etched dots to the glass on the first three floors of the building.

“What those dots do, is they allow the birds to realize that this is not somewhere I can fly,” said Yerxa, who added it was a “significant” cost to etch the glass. 

“We are a locally owned family run business in Fredericton,” Yerxa said “so, when the community raised the concern, we didn’t feel it was something we could ignore.”

Roy-McDougall said she’s pleased with the measures the developer took.

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