Time to rethink Toronto’s tall buildings

Shortly before Christmas, construction on The One, the star-crossed tower at Yonge and Bloor, burst through the 150-metre threshold, if not the project’s financial troubles, to formally attain the status of skyscraper. While developer Sam Mizrahi’s former backers forced the project into receivership last October, the planned 91-storey luxury tower will nonetheless grow to become Toronto’s first so-called “supertall,” one of seven in the city now in the development pipeline.

Needless to say, many more very tall buildings will be poking into the city’s skyline over the next generation as new provincial planning rules compel Greater Toronto Area municipalities to significantly up-zone around dozens of major transit stations, both existing and under construction.

The question – one that will face whoever becomes the city’s next chief planner – is whether Toronto’s 12-year-old policies governing the design of tall buildings in the downtown core need to be revamped, not only to accommodate this next wave of development but also to encourage far more architectural variety in a sector that has become known for homogeneous glass-and-steel towers perched atop podiums often tenanted up by chain stores.