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Frank Gehry’s Forma development begins construction in Toronto

2023-06-12T14:49:00-04:00

Frank Gehry’s biggest-ever contribution to the city in which he was born is now underway after construction began on the two-tower Forma condominium scheme in downtown Toronto.

A total of 2,087 residential units will be constructed as part of the process, filling out the pair of 73- and 84-story towers that, once built, will stand as the tallest buildings the 94-year-old Gehry has completed during the course of his illustrious six-decade career in architecture.

Image courtesy Forma/Great Gulf.

Gehry himself was on hand for last week’s groundbreaking ceremony, where he commented on the project’s significance as a new landmark rising from the busy commercial core of the city that has recently become a battleground for developers looking to surmount the fray of tall building proposals proffered there since the beginning of 2021.

Image courtesy Forma/Great Gulf.

"You think about the buildings in other cities like Rockefeller Center, where there’s an ensemble of buildings that create publ...

Safdie Architects' design for the ORCA mega-development in downtown Toronto finally clears a major hurdle

2021-06-18T21:17:00-04:00

A new multibillion-dollar development has been approved in Toronto, clearing the way for what could potentially be the latest in a string of high-profile projects, including 55 Yonge and Gehry's King Street West, altering the city’s skyline over the next decade.

Situated above a 10.5-acre park that straddles the King West district between the city’s downtown and waterfront, the proposed Over Rail Corridor Area (or ORCA) aims to create a mega-district west of the CN Tower by decking eight residential towers along a 16.5-acre railyard site that will add 3,000 new units of housing connected to the park via series of ramps and elevators.

A view of the interlinking towers, courtesy of Safdie Architects.

Safdie Architects is responsible for the multi-use development that will incorporate shopping and office space into the residential design in what the architect hopes is going to unite the continent’s, reportedly, most diverse city.

"Our design aspires to forge a reconnection in the commun...

Frank Gehry's shiny King Street West towers advance in Toronto

2021-02-10T20:29:00-05:00

Frank Gehry is back in Toronto − at least via Zoom. At 91, the world’s most famous architect is actively working on a major project in the city where he was born: two towers on King Street West that are the biggest and the tallest buildings of his career. After more than eight years of discussion, this complex project is advancing. The developers say they will begin sales on its condo apartments in 2022.

The Frank Gehry-designed towers for a massive downtown Toronto development have come a long way since they were first proposed in 2012.

Image: Gehry Partners

Gone are the dramatic curves of the initial Mirvish+Gehry Toronto plan — the latest design updates propose two stainless steel-clad 'stacked-boxes' towers on King Street West, 308 meters (1,010 feet) and 266.5 meters (874 feet) tall respectively.

Construction gets underway at BIG's KING Toronto development

2020-06-30T18:19:00-04:00

The earliest stages of construction are unfolding for what is sure to become a prominent landmark on Toronto's King Street West. As demolition of some parts of the existing buildings on the site continues, the arrival of shoring rigs is marking the start of construction for Westbank Corp and Allied Properties REIT's KING Toronto, a 16-storey mountain range-shaped luxury condominium complex from acclaimed Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group and Toronto based Diamond Schmitt Architects.

Following months of extensive demolition work, the site has been mostly cleared for what is shaping up to become a major urban redevelopment on Toronto's King Street West, reports Urban Toronto.

North elevation from King Street W. All renderings via the project's website.

West entrance into the courtyard

Courtyard looking east

Dubbed KING Toronto, the Bjarke Ingels Group-designed, Westbank/Allied-funded condo and mixed-use building was first proposed in 2016 and eventually won the city's approval in 2018.

Completion of the 16-story complex is scheduled for 2022.

Construction underway at KING Toronto, a 16-storey mountain range-shaped luxury condominium complex from acclaimed Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group. #KINGToronto #architecture #toronto https://t.co/HPJikot0Js pic.twitter.com/5Gm9PBj3fF
— Westbank (@westbankcorp) June 30, 2020

The Bjarke Ingels-designed 2016 Serpentine Pavilion makes an appearance in Toronto before traveling further

2018-10-17T18:01:00-04:00

[...] the 2016 Unzipped pavilion by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels was acquired by a wealthy collector: the Canadian developer Ian Gillespie, whose company Westbank was a sponsor of the London presentation. Last month, the shape-shifting 14-metre-high, 27-metre-long installation made the move to inner city Toronto, where it was unveiled on the site of the architect’s next commission for Westbank, a massively ambitious housing complex on King Street West.

Another member of the growing family of the Serpentine Galleries' annual summer pavilions has found a new home: the Bjarke Ingels-designed Unzipped pavilion — famously praised by The Guardian's architecture critic Oliver Wainwright as "possibly the Serpentine’s most impressive pavilion yet" when it opened in June 2016 — was recently unveiled to the public on a site in Toronto where BIG's mountain-shaped King Street condo building will rise soon.

View this post on Instagram Open till midnight tonight with live music. . . . . #unzippedtoronto #nbTO18 #architecture #toronto #exhibition #design
A post shared by Westbank (@westbankcorp) on Sep 29, 2018 at 9:48am PDT

The pavilion won't stick around for too long though and is scheduled to travel to other international cities before reaching its final, permanent site in Vancouver.

A rendering of the pavilion's final destination in Vancouver. Credit: Westbank.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the 2018 Serpentine Pav...

BIG's “experimental” Westbank residential project now approved for Toronto's historic King Street

2018-09-13T17:25:00-04:00

After 2½ years of negotiations, the condo project Westbank King Street has been approved and is about to start sales. [...] The new condo will be hard to miss. It could be the strangest residential building ever constructed in Canada. Certainly, it will set an interesting example for new housing. While new condos and apartments are often faulted for being soulless, this promises to be a carefully detailed building, a distinctive place, and a village that contributes to the larger city.

First proposed in 2016, BIG's Westbank King Street condo building in Toronto has been approved for development. With its "mountainous" forms and Habitat 67-inspired stacked design, the glass building is being described as a radical and experimental addition for richly historic King Street, a major thoroughfare in the city.

“How will this model – of intimacy and spatial complexity and surprising juxtapositions – work in an old part of a North American city? Mr. Ingels is optimistic,” writes Alex Bozikovic, architecture critic of The Globe and Mail, in the article.

BIG is proposing this "pixellated"-module housing project in Toronto

2016-02-22T18:19:00-05:00

The sentiment is warm and fuzzy. The design, however, is radical: BIG has imagined a complex that would be unlike any other building in the city – or, indeed, North America. The scheme blends an unusual stack-of-blocks form, and adds a complex weave of public and private spaces underneath and within the heart of the building itself...the effect [Bjarke Ingels] is going for is akin to 'a Mediterranean mountain town.'

More recent BIG projects:

BIG to design 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, alongside smaller "Summer Houses" by Kunlé Adeyemi, Barkow Leibinger, Yona Friedman and Asif Kahn

BIG in Paris: Bjarke Ingels to design for Galeries Lafayette on Champs-Élysées

BIG's concept for a spiraling-landscape tower in NYC's Hudson Yards