Canadian City Skyscraper Proposals (150m+)

[TorontoDrew]

As discussed in the proposal page, here is the new 150m+ skyscraperpage to give more Canadian Markets better exposure in the proposal thread.

240 Adelaide St W

Address 240 Adelaide St W, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 1W7
Category: Residential (Hotel, Condo), Commercial (Retail)
Status: Pre-Construction
Number: of Buildings 1
Height: 719 ft / 219.00 m
Storeys: 63
Number of Units: 376, 117
Developer: Freed Developments
Architect: AS + GG Architecture

source: urbantoronto.ca

[MolsonExport]

Reminds me a bit of Foster's design for Two World Trade Centre (which lamentably never got built)

[GreatTallNorth2]

50 King Street, London
Residential
Number of Buildings: 2, 53 & 43 storeys
Height Building 1: 186 metres/610 feet
Height Building 2: 143 metres/469 feet
Developer: York Developments
Architect: Zedd Architecture





Image Source: CTV News

[Innsertnamehere]

I'm pretty excited for that London Proposal. London will be getting two new tallests in quick succession by the looks of it.

[hipster duck]

Is that riverfront public space redevelopment in London an active, separate proposal, or is that just artistic liberty by the renderers to sell the condo?

[rbt]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Is that riverfront public space redevelopment in London an active, separate proposal, or is that just artistic liberty by the renderers to sell the condo?

The "Bridge to Nowhere" (observation deck, not an actual crossing) proposal was introduced as part of a $10M "Back to the River" project about 4 years ago. The entire thing died in 2020.

https://www.lcf.on.ca/stories-backen...eeds-your-help

That said, I believe a increase in west downtown population also increases the likelihood of future park improvements in that area.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by rbt

The "Bridge to Nowhere" (observation deck, not an actual crossing) proposal was introduced as part of a $10M "Back to the River" project about 4 years ago. The entire thing died in 2020.

https://www.lcf.on.ca/stories-backen...eeds-your-help

From what I understand, the developer will be working with the city to build the "Back to the River" proposal along with the development.

[rbt]

Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2

From what I understand, the developer will be working with the city to build the "Back to the River" proposal along with the development.

IIRC, it died from lack of agreement on what should be done rather than a funding shortfall.

It'll be interesting to see where consensus landed.

[giallo]

Always love when a city gets a new tallest building. The London towers don't look too bad either.

[WhipperSnapper]

The novelty of a city building a new tallest wears off pretty quickly and I start questioning, for example, if residential skyscrapers are in the best interest of a mid sized city like London.

I'm not exactly clear what is going on with this development. The preservation of the courthouse gets attached to this development inferring a situation like a transfer of air rights which would make these heights a unique circumstance. however, the planning reports never include the courthouse within the property's boundaries. Follow up developments in London can use this as a reference to gain zoning approval.

This is a skyscraper forum and so much stock is put into skylines. What's the point to live in London if the downtown starts to look and feel like a post 2000 residential downtown Toronto neighbourhood? Of course, I don't find Toronto's Entertainment District remotely an ideal form of a downtown residential neighbourhood. It's becoming indistinguishable from a CBD except for the buildings meeting the street better (which is a product of the extremely high lot coverage) and some ground floor retail. And before Pantages Tower in Toronto topped out, CBD's were universally seen as hostile territories.

I will be dust for London to develop into Toronto's Entertainment District. The precedence for the chance of it happening is being set with developments like this if there isn't that connections to the courthouse property.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

The novelty of a city building a new tallest wears off pretty quickly and I start questioning, for example, if residential skyscrapers are in the best interest of a mid sized city like London.

I'm not exactly clear what is going on with this development. The preservation of the courthouse gets attached to this development inferring a situation like a transfer of air rights which would make these heights a unique circumstance. however, the planning reports never include the courthouse within the property's boundaries. Follow up developments in London can use this as a reference to gain zoning approval.

This is a skyscraper forum and so much stock is put into skylines. What's the point to live in London if the downtown starts to look and feel like a post 2000 residential downtown Toronto neighbourhood? Of course, I don't find Toronto's Entertainment District remotely an ideal form of a downtown residential neighbourhood. It's becoming indistinguishable from a CBD except for the buildings meeting the street better (which is a product of the extremely high lot coverage) and some ground floor retail. And before Pantages Tower in Toronto topped out, CBD's were universally seen as hostile territories

There was a drawing that included a third tower being built within the courthouse, but I do not think that will fly. It was never part of the proposal.

Within the context of London, I can say this development is welcome. We are in a serious housing shortage (as is most of Ontario) and our downtown needs more residents to breath much needed life into businesses downtown. There are a lot of empty shops downtown and a lot of current retail is occupied by pot shops, pawn shops, etc. I can only think more people living downtown helps fill and elevate the types of stores there. Many are hoping this eventually brings a grocery store downtown. Living downtown has an appeal, even in London, and this project is walking distance to the market, Budweiser Gardens, restaurants, etc.

London won't ever have a Hong Kong skyline, so no need to worry about too many large towers being built here.

[WhipperSnapper]

Hong Kong? Really?

It's already happening. Centro is two 30 plus storey twin towers with a 10 storey connector. Any signature aspect attached to height is all but taken away with an identical, slightly short twin a stone toss away. The ten storey connector turns it all into a block long wall of window wall. This one is much more attractive than Centro. Still, an identical twin a toss away that is 15% shorter and connected by podium removes much of the thrill of a 170 metre signature tower in London.

Something that would have accentuated the height of the tallest would have been a 10 rising to 18 storey terraced building separated from the tower by an outdoor pedestrian lane.

Same thing in Toronto. It often Isn't the heights. It's that it comes in twins, triplets and, quads.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Centro is two 30 plus storey twin towers with a 10 storey connector. Any signature aspect attached to height is all but taken away with an identical, slightly short twin a stone toss away.

I don't disagree, London is full of fugly twins. The 40 storey Centro tower will soon be topping out and it certainly stands out in the skyline since the second 30 storey tower barely underway.

[kool maudit]

That Toronto tower on Adelaide is really well-conceived. I don't think there is anything wrong with all of these Toronto buildings in and of themselves, but I would love to see a situation where the people working within them make decisions that are felt far and wide.

[Maldive]

100 Borough | 163.5m | 50s | The Rosdev Group | Arcadis l pre-construction

Another big proposal* across from Scarborough Town Centre with 50, 50, 46, 39 & 26-storey mixed-use condominium buildings (2335 units). As alluded to over at Urban Toronto by @Northern Light, the quality of most of Arcadis’ design work continues to underwhelm.

*Oxford Properties, CreateTO and a half dozen other multi-tower proposals are in the pipeline, in and around Scarborough Town Centre.



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[WhipperSnapper]

When was the last tower completed in Scarborough Centre? Toronto has way too many proposals too build them all but, there's something under construction in the neighbourhood.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

When was the last tower completed in Scarborough Centre? Toronto has way too many proposals too build them all but, there's something under construction in the neighbourhood.

2011 was the last large building completed in Scarborough Centre I believe - but there is a midrise building getting built on Brimley right now, and obviously no shortage of proposals. I imagine we'll see more shift to construction as the subway gets closer to completion.

[niwell]

Development is welcome but if I were to move to London there's no way I'm living in a highrise of that magnitude. The Entertainment District in Toronto at least has some selling points, though the only part I'd ever consider is West of Spadina.

Scarborough Town Centre has seemed a bit of a dead zone for the last decade or so. Again, still more of a case to be made compared to smaller centres.

That being said a friend of mine in tech has made a killing off the condo he purchased cheap in KW when his company was still based there (moved to Toronto).

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by niwell

Development is welcome but if I were to move to London there's no way I'm living in a highrise of that magnitude. The Entertainment District in Toronto at least has some selling points, though the only part I'd ever consider is West of Spadina.

I get what you are saying but you also have to put into context exactly where these buildings are located in London.

The towers are at the Fork of the Thames and right up against several parks, beside heritage buildings, opposite Budweiser Gardens, and at the far end of the Downtown. This means that no matter what side of the building you are on, there is no threat of having your views blocked by another high-rise. On one side you have a stellar skyline view and on the other you have a view of the Thames, and the entire city with the sunset over London's huge tree canopy.

This is quite unlike 99% of the high-rises in Toronto were your view maybe fantastic right now but just looking into someone else's apt 5 years from now.

[MolsonExport]

London is very far away from the day that we need to ask ourselves whether more highrises are needed in the city centre (which is still very gappy, both in terms of the building wall and the huge number of surface parking lots). We badly need to bring thousands of residents downtown to revitalize the core, which is struggling due to storefront vacancies and a terrible homeless problem and profusion of fentanyl junkies. Plus, we need to rebalance the skyline away from the fugly twin towers that have proliferated the skyline.