Four Toronto building projects to watch in 2026

With the exception of Commerce Court North (1931) or the Royal York Hotel (1929), much of what we see as the Toronto skyline – until recently but we’ll get to that – was constructed during the great postwar building boom that spanned from the late-1950s to the late-1980s. That’s when local stars such as John C. Parkin or Peter Dickinson made their mark, alongside internationally acclaimed architects such as I.M. Pei (the rest of Commerce Court), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (TD Centre) and Edward Durell Stone (First Canadian Place).

Similarly, since the late-1990s Toronto has been enjoying another boom, which has resulted in entirely new districts, such as “South Core,” the Canary District, the waterfront east of Yonge Street, and the proliferation of condominium towers in practically every neighbourhood. But, even a casual glance at the headlines in 2025 suggests that this boom is over: in October, The Globe reported that, according to analytics firm Urbanation Inc., “Preconstruction sales have fallen to a 30-year low, while a growing number of large-scale projects are being cancelled.”