A downtown Calgary highrise is undergoing a comprehensive engineering review to find the cause of the recent shattering of a glass pane that caused a closure of part of the sidewalk below.

In mid-December, a window pane broke on the 27th floor of Brookfield Place, a highrise located at the 200 block of 6th Avenue S.W., and glass fell to the sidewalk. It’s the latest incident of shattering glass the 2017 building has experienced, prompting City of Calgary administration to ask for an engineering review.

“A failure when you have a pre-occupied downtown, that risk is just unacceptable,” Cliff de Jong, manager of the city’s building safety services, said over the phone Monday.

“It isn’t clear at all as to what happened exactly, so you can’t solve the problem unless you know that answer. That’s essentially what we’re requiring Brookfield to do.”

He said the city has been working with the owner of the building, Brookfield Properties, since the December incident, “given what could be the severity of the impact” of that falling glass. Brookfield Properties has been responsive to the city and has hired an engineering firm and contractor to start work on the review.

“We’re feeling confident that they are taking this with the right level of concern and taking the right steps. But because of that, it will take some time,” said de Jong. “This is very complex work. And we want it to be done right.”

Andrew​ Brent, spokesperson for Brookfield Properties, said in a statement Monday that safety is the company’s number one priority in and around their properties.

Keep reading in the Calgary Herald