Architectural stars appear on the skyline of Canada's largest city

Mitchell Cohen, clad in work boots still bearing the sales tag, steps over construction debris in the heart of Canada's biggest city. The development executive peers over an unfinished concrete ledge about five stories above King Street and gestures toward Roy Thomson Hall, home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

As chief operating officer at Westdale Properties, he's among those responsible for building the 84-story Forma condo tower rising on the site, the first major project designed by acclaimed architect Frank Gehry in his hometown.

"This neighborhood is full of arts, entertainment and culture," Cohen said, looking around to take in the concert hall across the street, with performing arts theatres and the Toronto International Film Festival's home base nearby. "Just think about living in this Frank Gehry work of art and being steps away from theatre and the arts."

Forma is one of a number of properties, designed by some of the world's best-known architects, changing the Toronto skyline. Others who have designed new projects in Toronto include Norman Foster of London, Jeanne Gang of Chicago, Bjarke Ingels of Copenhagen and Renzo Piano of Genoa, Italy.

For Canada's largest metropolitan area, the situation could be described as a shift to quality over quantity, Larry Richards, an architecture professor at the University of Toronto, told CoStar News.

"There was a bland, architectural sameness to the burst in Toronto construction from the 1990s through the 2010s," Richards said.

One Bloor West, designed by Foster, has visible structural framing installed vertically, horizontally and diagonally. Gang's One Delisle is composed of modules that nest together as they ascend to the pinnacle. Hariri Pontarini Architects' SkyTower is expected to become Canada's tallest building on completion.

Years of population growth and national immigration policies contributed to the city's diversity, opening the door to new ideas about Toronto's built environment, Richards said. The Greater Toronto Area's population increased 9.5% to 7.1 million between 2020 and 2024, according to Statistics Canada. More than half of Toronto's population were minority groups in 2021, according to the Canadian census.

"There's a point where a city reaches a certain level of global reach and ambition," Richards told CoStar News. "Toronto has arrived at that point."

Private developers and local authorities are moving outside their comfort zone, Jodi Buck, associate partner at Hariri Pontarini, told CoStar News. As a result, architects are becoming increasingly creative.

"There is a new awareness in Toronto of the importance of design," Buck said.

Two projects that opened in the 2000s helped push Toronto's architectural mindset in a new direction, Nadine El-Gazzar, senior project architect at Hariri Pontarini, told CoStar News: The Ontario College of Art & Design University building, which resembles a tabletop, and architect Daniel Libeskind's glass structure at the Royal Ontario Museum.

"Those really changed the narrative," El-Gazzar said. "It changed from 'Toronto doesn't have great architecture' to 'we now have international, big-name architects working here.'"

They also helped Toronto residents realize that great architecture shouldn't be restricted to museums and schools, Buck said.

"The public can go into these spaces and see what a well-designed building can be," said Buck. "People start asking themselves why can you not have this in a condo building? Good design doesn't have to be in just institutional buildings."

The pace of new developments may slow because of Toronto's struggling condo market. Total condo sales in the Greater Toronto Area fell about 21% to 4,413 units in the second quarter compared to the previous year, according to the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. The number of active listings rose 39% during the same period to 9,530 units, one of the highest figures on record. Third-quarter sales of multifamily properties dropped 70% to $318.3 million compared to the previous year, according to Colliers.

The condo market downturn has led to some project cancellations, including Mattamy Homes and QuadReal Property Group's proposed development in Etobicoke.

New housing development will rebound, however, Chris Eby, executive vice president at Northcrest Developments, told CoStar News. Greater Toronto is projected to grow in the next decade, and more residences will be needed to support that growth. Northcrest's mixed-use project at the former Downsview airport should meet some of the demand for market-rate and affordable housing.

Richards at the University of Toronto cited the typical ups and downs of economic cycles as the reason the region's condo market will rebound. That's also why, Richards said, architects will continue to flock to the city, especially when it comes to designing luxury residential towers.

"There's a prestige factor when you are trying to cater to the very high end of the market," Richards said. "If a developer can do a building designed by Frank Gehry or Norman Foster, there's a marketing aspect to it."

Here is a look at several projects either in the works or recently opened that are contributing to the new collection of shimmering, soaring and whimsical designs set to dot the skyline and city streets of Toronto.

What they are saying:

"The developers I work with love what I do because it's profitable," Gehry told CBC Radio in September 2022. "They understand that, if you make a beautiful piece of sculpture, somebody buys it."

Description:

Forma is the first major commercial project by Gehry in his hometown of Toronto. Gehry is known for his deconstructivist approach, characterized by warped building shapes and luminous metal cladding. The 84-story Forma tower will appear somewhat restrained compared to some of Gehry's works, such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, with a series of building sections stacked at rotated angles.

But Forma will nevertheless have Gehry's design flair. More than 7,400 panels made of metal and window glass are set to cover most of the exterior. The panels' surface is designed in a wave pattern to reflect light in different ways, depending on the time of day and the season.

"From every angle, the light will reflect and provide an array of colours," said Cohen, the executive with Forma's developer Westdale Properties, during a recent tour of the project's construction site.

As of October, about 86% of Forma's residential units have been sold, according to Cohen. The lower floors have been leased to the Ontario College of Art & Design University for use as classrooms.

What they are saying:

As the Toronto market gets saturated with new construction, "each building needs to tell some sort of story" to set it apart from the crowd, Hariri Pontarini's El-Gazzar said. "You need to find what will make people want to choose this" instead of another building.

Description:

What will set SkyTower apart is obvious — at 1,152 feet, it will be the tallest building in Canada.

The decision to design the country's tallest building — the nearby CN Tower, at 1,815 feet, doesn't count because the city classifies it as a broadcasting tower — wasn't taken lightly, Hariri Pontarini's Buck told CoStar News. In Toronto's central business district, where available land is scarce, developers must build taller structures to create more units, giving the developer more product to sell.

Developers must receive approval from various government bodies to build taller structures. In recent years, officials in Toronto have started making requests of their own from developers in exchange for approving applications for taller buildings, Buck said.

"The city is saying to developers that if they are going to give them bigger scale and more density, then what can they give to the city in return?" Buck told CoStar News.

What developers have given in return includes hiring world-class architects to design taller buildings, Buck said. Developers have also provided additional amenities, such as community centers and public plazas. The street-level area of SkyTower is designed to include pathways that the public can access, along with retail space.

Height was a central aspect of discussion throughout Hariri Pontarini's design process, El-Gazzar said. The architects, as required by city laws, created 3D models from various points of the surrounding neighborhood to show how the building would appear. That led to the decision to design SkyTower as a 12-sided polygon.

"That gives you a similar vantage point of the tower from all sides," El-Gazzar said. "From any vantage point, you're seeing all the building's features."

What they are saying:

King Toronto "echoes some of Moshe Safdie's most revolutionary ideas from Habitat 67, but rather than a utopian experiment on an island, it's nested in the heart of the city," according to Bjarke Ingels Group.

Description:

Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67 in Montreal is considered a landmark of modernist architecture and has become one of Montreal's best-known buildings. A tribute to Safdie's masterpiece is under construction in Toronto.

The 16-story King Toronto is composed of stacks of structures, each "rotated 45 degrees from the street grid to increase exposure to light and air," according to lead design architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group. Much of the exterior is made from glass blocks, providing both sunlight and privacy to its 514 residential units. Several historic properties, all restored, are contained within the new structure.

What they are saying:

"It's like a new version of the Eaton Centre," the University of Toronto's Richards said, referring to the Cadillac Fairview-owned mall that opened in downtown Toronto in 1977.

Description:

The Well is a 3.2 million-square-foot mixed-use development that combines retail, offices and residences across seven buildings, located at the southern end of Spadina Avenue near Lake Ontario. The ground level includes multiple paths open to the public, providing access to the property's extensive retail offerings.

The Well has nevertheless experienced some of the same difficulties as countless other office towers. Shopify leased 254,000 square feet at The Well in 2018. However, the e-commerce company never moved in after allowing employees to continue working from home indefinitely in the aftermath of the pandemic. Shopify listed the space for sublease and is still paying rent.

What they are saying:

"I think it's going to be really popular," Don Schmitt, principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, told CoStar News. "It's going to be a big success." 

Description:

Therme Group began construction on its first wellness resort in Canada. The project is located on the artificial islands that once hosted the Ontario Place entertainment venue and water park. Therme has planned new locations in Dallas and Washington, D.C., joining its original locations in Europe and Asia. The Toronto facility is designed to include indoor and outdoor pools, waterslides, saunas, spas, restaurants and a botanical garden.

The project has faced public opposition, however. The nonprofit group Ontario Place for All said a private developer shouldn't be allowed to build on prime waterfront property that should be reserved for public use. It also criticized the province of Ontario for awarding Therme a lease to the property without public input. Other community groups have complained about the number of old-growth trees that were taken down.

Alex Bozikovic, architecture critic at the Globe and Mail, has criticized the design by local firm Diamond Schmitt and the amount of public money going to the project.

"They are blighting Ontario Place," Bozikovic wrote in December.

Schmitt, co-founder of his namesake firm, countered by saying that the Therme project will result in the planting of more trees than there were previously, as well as the creation of an expanded beach area and improved public access to the lakefront.

"Focusing on Indigenous place-making, the design of the public parklands creates opportunities for storytelling and culture through native plantings, spatial connections and knowledge sharing elements," Diamond Schmitt said in a project description.

What they are saying:

One Bloor West "is inspired by its context, the neighborhood quality of Yorkville, the commercial boulevard of Bloor Street and the local heritage character of Yonge Street," said Foster & Partners.

Description:

One Bloor West is intended to provide not only luxury condos for its future residents, but also serve as a bridge between two neighborhoods. The 80-story structure is located at the border of downtown and the Yorkville district.

Structural framing helps define the main visual theme of the tower with vertical, horizontal and diagonal frames that are cast in a "champagne bronze" color.

"The tower is a clearly articulated building that differentiates the commercial units at lower levels from the residential apartments above," Foster & Partners said in a project description.

What they are saying:

"We want our tenants or customers to want to come to the office and create a sense that if you are not coming, you are missing out," said Avi Tesciuba, the head of Canada for Hines.

Description:

Developed by Hines and La Caisse, the two buildings that make up CIBC Square may hold their position as the newest office towers in downtown Toronto for many years.

That was the assessment last year by Tesciuba, based on the observation that virtually no top-tier office towers are in the pipeline in Toronto's central business district.

Meanwhile, the second tower, totaling 1.4 million square feet, is 91% preleased and nearing completion by early next year, according to CoStar data. CIBC and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are the two largest tenants. 

WilkinsonEyre, the lead design architect, is connecting the two towers via a sky park, with the two buildings positioned on opposite sides of Toronto's primary passenger rail corridor, which leads into Union Station.

"The lobbies of both towers provide spectacularly grand spaces that are a first for the Toronto market," WilkinsonEyre said in a project description.

What they are saying:

"By bringing new life to an industrial heritage site, Waterworks expresses a holistic approach to retaining the stories of our cities, while setting the stage for new narratives and opportunities for urban transformation," Urban Land Institute Americas said about Waterworks in its ULI Awards program.

Description:

Waterworks is a mixed-use project that offers an unusual combination of property uses. There's a food hall and residential space. But then there's also a YMCA. The nearly century-old building was previously a repair yard for municipal vehicles and spans an entire block.

The original art deco building was retained as part of Diamond Schmitt's design, with a 10-story residential component constructed on top. The residential units are accessed via the historic building.

Waterworks "rehabilitates, conserves and expands an industrial heritage site through the integration of diverse programs — not only supporting the life of its residents, but the greater community and urban experience," according to Diamond Schmitt.

The building is also situated next to Toronto's oldest playground, St. Andrews Park.

What they are saying:

"Located at an important node in Toronto and anchoring the corner of a full-block development, it provides much-needed density on a compact footprint," design firm Studio Gang said in a project description.

Description:

Studio Gang, the Chicago design shop led by Jeanne Gang, is known for its creation of the Richard Gilder Center addition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, among other works. The 44-story One Delisle is the firm's first project in Canada. WZMH is the architect of record.

Located in the Yonge and St. Clair neighborhood, 9 miles from downtown Toronto, One Delisle features a series of eight-story modules on the exterior that nest into each other as they spiral up the sides of the circular building. Balconies are placed within the modules and also provide shade to the interior spaces. Each building floor has a different shape and size, "resulting in unique conditions within the living spaces, bringing a diversity of residential options," according to the firm's project description.

What they are saying:

"This project is one of a kind in the world," Herb Sweeney, a partner at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, told the Globe and Mail in July.

Description:

A project that has been under construction for more than 20 years, at a cost of 1.5 billion Canadian dollars and counting, the Port Lands is transforming a former industrial site and swamp on the shorefront of Lake Ontario into one of the city's largest parks, surrounded by property slated for commercial development.

Engineers and landscape architects have literally rerouted the Don River and rebuilt the river delta, one reason for the project's lengthy timetable. The acreage was previously a swamp that frequently caused flooding, resulting in property damage.

In its place will be mixed-use development, restored wildlife habitats and parks designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a landscape architecture firm that has also designed parks in New York, Detroit and St. Louis. The developers, a partnership between the city of Toronto, the province of Ontario and the Canadian government, worked with indigenous groups on the parks' design, such as a giant owl used as a playground structure. The British firm Grimshaw designed three bridges over waterways in the Port Lands that have already become a symbol for the revived area.

The first signs of commercial development adjacent to Port Lands emerged recently. A partnership led by Cityzen Development Group proposed a series of 14 mixed-use high-rise buildings at 429 Lake Shore Blvd. E. The project, called 3C, is designed to provide about 5,000 new residential units, retail and other amenities.