The measurement of the pressure distributions on a model of the proposed new City Hall in our subsonic tunnel in 1960 was probably the first wind engineering investigation of its kind in Canada the staff members involved were Etkin and Korbacher, and the students were Karl Dau, Ron Chisholm, Bob Grenda and George Kurylowich. (Wind engineering has since been developed into a major field of activity in Canada primarily at the University of Western Ontario where our alumnus Dave Surry is a major contributor, and at RWDI in Guelph where another alumnus, Glen Schuyler, is a senior member.)

Our tests showed that the structure of the original building, as designed by Revell, the Finnish winner of the international design competition, was inadequate. It had very little torsional stiffness, and the buildings, acting like turbine blades, had large torsional moments. The structure and the external shape had to be extensively modified as a result.  When our findings were, after a year or so of silence, finally made public at a news conference – all hell broke loose. The mayor, Nathan Phillips, whose pet project the City Hall was, called Sydney Smith and accused him of trying to sabotage his City Hall. You see the problem was that our public relations office had timed the press conference to occur just before the Ontario Municipal Board was to meet to approve the project! As you see, the City Hall did get built! 

Check out the news clippings in the 1960 timeline entry