5 Of Toronto’s Coolest New Buildings

The cranes dotting the Toronto skyline tell the story: the city is awash in construction, whether it’s funky condo buildings or sleek office towers. Here are five downtown projects we’re watching this summer.

1. One Bloor

Location: 1 Bloor St E

Designer: Hariri Pontarini Architects

Developer: Great Gulf

Coolness: The city’s crossroads at long last boasts some architectural intrigue as this 76-storey landmark—Great Gulf’s flagship—nears completion. The undulating tower will have 732 condos atop a 100k SF podium, anchored by Nordstrom Rack. One Bloor’s sloped roof nicely contrasts with surrounding boxy towers, and fritted glass balconies pinwheel around the tower, giving it nice curves.

2. EY Tower

Location: 100 Adelaide St W

Designers: Kohn Pedersen Fox | WZMH Architects

Developer: Oxford Properties Group

Coolness: This 40-storey office tower—anchored by Ernst & Young and the new home for the OMERS family—pays homage to history by incorporating cleaned-up façades of the 1928 Concourse Building, which previously occupied the site. The rest of the structure—Phase 3 of Richmond Adelaide Centre—looks to the future, with an angular glass curtain wall and distinct shard-shaped top.

3. 88 Scott 

Location: 88 Scott St

Designer: Page + Steele / IBI Group Architects

Developer: Concert Properties

Coolness: A 58-storey condo tower, 88 Scott will figure prominently in the Financial District's foreground. The development includes 20 Wellington St E, an office-retail building that’ll be Vancouver-based Concert’s TO HQ, and it features façades from the 1950s insurance company building that sat on the site: its limestone blocks were taken down, catalogued, cleaned and reintegrated.

4. Tableau

Location: 117 Peter St

Designer: Wallman Architects 

Developers: Urban Capital Property Group, Malibu Investments, Alit Development

Coolness: Tableau, so named for its table-like podium—a four-storey canopy highlighted by a colonnade of columns running along Richmond Street West—is an Entertainment District stand-out. It's 36 storeys, with a 410-unit condo tower sitting on top of the table, and 25k SF of office and retail housed below, behind reconstructed façades of an old warehouse building.

5. Harbour Plaza 

Location: 90 Harbour St

Designer: architectsAlliance 

Developer: Menkes Developments 

Coolness: Boasting balconies as sculptural elements, the towers are rising toward their ultimate heights of 65 and 69 storeys (with 1,250 condo units). They already make an eye-catching addition to the rapidly evolving South Core skyline. A four-storey podium will house a grocery store. The project also includes office tower One York, anchored by Sun Life Financial.

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Related:

5 Of Toronto's Coolest-Looking New Condos

5 More Of Toronto's Coolest-Looking New Condos

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