If you read the article there's a whole section on how Seattle had a similar problem. That's why all the new condos look so similar, there are very few materials that don't leak.
Leaks are fine--they happen to all buildings sooner or later. The key is to let the leaked water out of the building, which synthetic stucco of the late 1990s was terrible at. Today, if you want stucco in a wood framed building in BC you have to include an air gap between the stucco and the building itself, and that setup has no issues.
Same with brick and stone facades. If you have a sprinkler system where water gets directed onto the building (intentionally or not), there's a phenomenon called "Vapor Drive" which is essentially capillary action. Without the air gap between the facade material and the wood framing, that moisture goes in there and rots the wood.
