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1.5K Eight Ambitious Designs Redefining Toronto’s Next Generation of Buildings
Toronto continuing building boom is bringing the city some of its most daring additions in years, redefining what is possible here. While new towers appear all the time, a set of bold proposals and active construction sites is introducing forms, materials, and structural systems that push well beyond the familiar. These designs, from the sinuous and faceted to the pixelated and draped, show us how the city is shaping its future built identity.
Below, we spotlight just eight of many standout developments, four currently under construction and four in the development pipeline, that capture this wave of ambition:
Forma
Forma introduces a pair of Frank Gehry–designed towers rising 73 and 84 storeys for Great Gulf, Dream Unlimited, and Westdale Properties, bringing his most ambitious Canadian work to the edge of the Entertainment District. The cladding strategy sets the tone: flat reflective glazing climbs the tower in a continuous curtain wall, while adjacent sculpted stainless steel panels warp and fold to produce a cascading effect Gehry likens to a waterfall. Each metal panel bends along multiple angles and varies in reflectivity, creating a constantly shifting surface that reacts to changing light.
One Bloor West
An 85-storey condominium, hotel, and retail tower designed by Foster + Partners with Core Architects, One Bloor West brings an exoskeletal structure to the southwest corner of Yonge and Bloor. The tower’s eight megacolumns frame its cruciform early levels, creating the champagne-toned structural expression that defines its exterior. With its height locked at 308.6m, the Tridel project stands as Canada’s first ‘supertall’ and a technically demanding addition to Toronto’s skyline.
KING Toronto
From Westbank Corp and Allied Properties REIT, the terraced, pixelated massing of the Bjarke Ingels Group design has taken shape in the King–Spadina corridor, rising 16 storeys with 45° angled residential cubes built above preserved heritage buildings, (heritage work overseen by ERA Architects). The stepped hill-like form is being enclosed with prefabricated window-and–glass-block panels. Projecting volumes with angular glazing, grilles, and glass block echo BIG’s sculptural concept. At grade, the design incorporates a three-level breezeway for a new north–south pedestrian link from King Street through the courtyard and toward Wellington.
One Delisle
Designed by Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang for Slate Asset Management, with WZMH as Architect of Record, this rising 44-storey tower is defined by eight-storey modules that shift the form from a square at its base to a round crown above. Each family of modules alternates between balcony and curtain wall expressions, producing a fluted exterior that becomes more pronounced as the floor plates rise upward. The podium reinforces the Yonge Street frontage, while deeper terraces and wing-wall balcony enclosures create sheltered microclimates inspired by European strandkorb seating.
As well as what is going up now, there are a number of other impressive proposals out there, waiting in the wings for the right moment to get started. We cannot be sure when the next four we are highlighting will get going, and which of these may change before then, but there are just some of the buildings that we are anticipating for the coming years!
55 Yonge
Planned as a 68-storey mixed-use tower designed by PARTISANS and BDP Quadrangle for H&R REIT, 55 Yonge’s profile would be defined by its sculpted steel exterior. The scheme centres on a 25-storey podium that climbs before tapering into a slimmer tower, all wrapped in a continuous “draped” facade described by the designers as a high-performance textile. Its geometry tightens at two key points to signal interior program changes, going from solid modules to an open trellis that sweeps over outdoor terraces and visually merges the podium with the upper tower.
College Park Redevelopment
The redevelopment led by GWL Realty Advisors and designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects with ERA Architects overseeing heritage work proposes three towers of 65, 75, and a ‘supertall’ 96 storeys rising behind the restored Art Deco landmark at Yonge and College. The plan completes the long-unfinished southern podium with an eight-storey hotel addition designed in the language of Ross & Macdonald’s original design. Most of the 1920s structure would remain in place, including the seventh-floor Carlu and ground-level arcade. Above the expanded base, the towers would draw from early 20th-century skyscraper proportions.
241 Yonge
Hariri Pontarini Architects’ 67-storey proposal for Angel Developments would introduce a bronze-toned tower form rising from a reconstructed streetscape anchored by the preserved Art Metropole building. The heritage structure’s west elevation would form the residential lobby entrance. Its restored storefront details rejoin a row of new, complementary facades designed as contemporary interpretations of Yonge Street’s traditional retail frontage. Heritage work is overseen by ERA Architects. Its stepped podium would have a series of terraces bridging the podium with the tower’s slender massing.
30 Scollard
This sharply angled 63-storey tower designed by CAL with Zeidler as Architect of Record for Constantine Enterprises would bring a diamond-patterned diagrid facade to the north edge of Scollard Street in Yorkville. The tower’s angled crest and slender form would rise from a boldly faceted podium that extends the lattice expression down to street level, framing both Scollard and Davenport with an 8-metre-tall ground floor and multi-level retail frontage. The result is a textured vertical composition that carries CAL’s sculptural lattice up the full height of the building.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on these developments, but in the meantime, you can learn more about them from our Database files, linked below. If you’d like, you can join in on the conversations in the associated Project Forum threads or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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UrbanToronto’s research and data service, UTPro, provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe—from proposal through to completion. Other services include Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
