Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to hit the ground running: “Build baby build” were among his first words after winning this week’s election. Toronto, Canada’s finance capital, is already booming—construction cranes are ubiquitous in the city of 3 million people. The census bureau anticipates another 1 million new Torontonians by 2050, explaining the new residential complexes that dot Lake Ontario’s shoreline, and further afield in the exurbs. The Canadian banking sector gradually migrated from Montreal to Toronto after World War II, altering its skyline forever. Handsome skyscrapers followed by Mies van der Rohe, I. M. Pei, SOM, and other offices. It was at that time Pierre Trudeau changed Canadian immigration policy, welcoming an influx of new residents from around the world to Ontario. Single-families, public housing, and cooperatives quickly built up the city’s outlying districts. The tumultuous Rob Ford years delivered myriad unimpressive towers in downtown Toronto that paled next to their earlier counterparts by Mies and Pei, deteriorating the city’s historic building stock. The Globe and Mail’s architecture critic Alex Bozikovic wrote about this loss in his book, 305 Lost Buildings of Canada. More recently, under Mayor Olivia Chow’s tutelage, the city has invested in much higher quality design, and also supportive housing.  Frank Gehry, Foster + Partners, Hariri Pontarini Architects, and other offices are trying to outdo one another in a space race to deliver Toronto’s best skyscraper, while other impressive projects by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Selldorf Architects, 3XN, Moriyama Teshima Architects, Studio Gang, and Henning Larsen pour in. Planners are prioritizing Indigenous communities by building community centers, hospitals, and housing sensitive to First Nations’ needs—Canary House at the Indigenous Hub by BDP Quadrangle, Stantec, and Two Row Architect, to name but one example. AN went to Toronto this week on the heels of the election to see some of the major projects reshaping the city. King Toronto is slated for completion in 2026. (Courtesy Bjarke Ingels Group) King Toronto | Bjarke Ingels Group | 2026 What was once a light industrial area west of Spedina Avenue is now Toronto’s Fashion District, a burgeoning mixed-use core. The Ace Hotel designed by Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and The Well—a mixed-use hub by Adamson Associates Architects, Hariri Pontarini Architects, and Claude Cormier + Associés—are standout features in the growing neighborhood. Soon, a new mixed-use complex by BIG will complement the nascent locale. King Toronto will deliver 440 homes in a 16-story envelope on King Street, not far from The Well and Ace Hotel. Its building envelope is impressive, taking cues from Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 in Montreal. But instead of concrete, King Toronto will be expressed in glass blocks. The project also has a significant preservation component: The development team was able to restore old masonry buildings that line the site perimeter, and integrate them into the complex, making it a blend of old and new Toronto. Glass block will encompass most of the facade. (Courtesy Bjarke Ingels Group) Andrea Zalewski, a senior architect at BIG, told AN at a site visit the pixelated terracing’s orientation is meant to reduce shadows on the street and provide optimal views of the city beyond. The occupancy volume “is essentially distributed across four mountains,” Zalewski said. King Toronto was first announced in 2015. It’s slated for completion next year. Forma will be a set of two towers on King Street, one is 73 stories, the other 84. (Courtesy Gehry Partners) Forma | Gehry Partners | 2028 Before he was Frank Gehry, he was Frank Goldberg. The Pritzker Prize–winning architect grew up in Toronto, and went to high school there. He only changed his name after moving to the U.S. for architecture school and realizing how anti-Semitism could curb his prospects. Gehry finished the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in 2008, his first homecoming. Now, Forma is Gehry’s second Toronto project, slated for completion in 2028. Studio Paolo Ferrari is doing the interiors. Forma will be a set of two towers on King Street, one at 73 stories, the other 84. Both towers will be clad in shimmering, sculpted, reflective panels. The site is across the street from Roy Thomson Hall, a 1982 building by Arthur Erickson. The towers will be built in Toronto’s Entertainment District; the transaction was facilitated by the Mirvish family, who owns much of the area’s building stock, namely its theaters.  The real estate agreement wasn’t without controversy: David Mirvish opted to demolish five historic buildings, including the Prince of Whales Theatre, to clear the way for Forma, sparking pushback from the performing arts community. Still, the development team sees Forma as a substantial step in Toronto’s growth, and for cementing Gehry’s status as a bonafide Torontonian. The 106-story SkyTower at One Yonge will be Canada’s tallest skyscraper. (Paul French/Courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects) One Yonge | Hariri Pontarini Architects | 2026 Soon, Canada’s tallest skyscraper will top out on the world’s longest street, the 35-mile-long Yonge Street. One Yonge, an urban ensemble by Hariri Pontarini Architects, takes its name from the expansive thoroughfare it hovers over. It’s getting built just down the street from 2221 Yonge, a tower by Pei Architects completed in 2022. One Yonge consists of six towers that range between 22 and 106 stories. Upon completion, the 106-story SkyTower at One Yonge will be Canada’s tallest skyscraper. (The CN Tower by John Andrews is technically Canada’s tallest building, measuring 1,815 feet.) The podium level at One Yonge will include affordable housing and a community center. In the coming years, the Brutalist Toronto Star building will be cleared to make way for the rest of the development.  One Bloor West | Foster + Partners | 2026 A skyscraper by Foster + Partners is slated to top out at 85 stories. One Bloor West, is heralded as Canada’s first supertall, although One Yonge will supersede it upon completion. Core Architects is also on the project team. Previously, the building was dubbed The One but, after it changed hands between developers, it rebranded. One Bloor West is defined by its expressive diagrid exoskeleton. Duplex penthouses will crown the tower’s top floors. There will also be a sky lobby with spa and fitness facilities, a sky terrace, library, and formal entertaining rooms. Construction should finish in 2026 and occupancy will begin in 2028. Construction shot of Aqualuna (Rasmus Hjortshoj/Courtesy 3XN) Aqualuna | 3XN, Perkins&Will | 2025 To the eastern edge of Toronto’s expansive Bayside Development is a new residential complex by 3XN, a Danish firm with offices around the world. Aqualuna’s facade is meant to mimic Lake Ontario’s crashing waves, the designers said. The complex will open later this year, and feature a community center by Perkins&Will. Aqualuna is just down the road from the new George Brown College campus by Moriyama Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects. This influx of residents and students will help activate what was once a derelict brownfield site outside of the city center, not far from where the defunct Sidewalk Toronto, the infamous Google Quayside project, was supposed to be built. George Brown College | Moriyama Teshima Architects, Acton Ostry Architects | 2025 Moriyama Teshima Architects is among Canada’s most prized architecture offices. Sadly, the provincial government has chosen to knock down Ontario Science Centre (OSC)—the late architect Raymond Moriyama’s first built work from 1969, despite a significant preservation effort by the architects and local business leaders. Together with Acton Ostry Architects, Moriyama Teshima Architects has designed a new vertical campus for George Brown College, a school of applied arts and technology. Its defining feature will be a grand stair on the lower level. The design team ideated an impressive mass timber structure for the building, with passive cooling techniques like “breathing rooms” and solar chimneys. The new George Brown College campus should open to students before this upcoming academic year. Rendering of 2444 Eglinton Avenue Co-ops (Courtesy Henriquez Partners) 2444 Eglinton Co-ops | Henriquez Partners, Claude Cormier + Associés Flashy supertalls admittedly won’t put a dent in the city’s $1 million housing crisis. For the first time in decades, the Canadian government is making substantial investments in cooperative housing to reduce livability costs. The largest investment of that nature thus far is a cooperative housing complex, 2444 Eglinton Avenue, designed by Henriquez Partners. From afar, 2444 Eglinton Avenue will stand out thanks to its polychromatic porthole windows. (Victoria Gibson, writing for the Toronto Star, likened the facade to Connect Four.) The mixed-income community will have a total 612 homes, many affordable, others market-rate. Retail offerings will be sited at the base level. Claude Cormier + Associés will do the landscape design. A construction timeline for 2444 Eglinton hasn’t been released yet. Art Gallery of Ontario night view rendering (Courtesy Art Gallery of Ontario, Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects, Two Row Architect, and Play- Time) Art Gallery of Ontario Expansion | Selldorf Architects, Diamond Schmitt, Two Row Architect | 2027 Frank Gehry’s AGO completed almost two decades ago, delivering an iconic cultural destination in the Entertainment District. The building underwent a slew of renovations, some by KPMB Architects and Hariri Pontarini Architects, two local offices. Now, Selldorf Architects, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row Architect are getting in on the action. The Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery will deliver 13 new galleries for AGO, increasing its display capacity by 30 percent, in a 5-story envelope with cladding that pays homage to the Gehry original. Selldorf Architects, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row were named the project team in 2022. The addition is slated for completion in 2027, as reported by AN. Diamond Schmitt is the lead architect behind the AGO addition, and Two Row Architect was tapped to shepherd an “ongoing consultation with Indigenous leaders and communities,” boosting adaptability, resiliency, and inclusivity. One Delisle | Studio Gang | 2026 Deer Park is among Toronto’s most beloved public spaces. There, construction is underway on  One Delisle, a tower by Studio Gang, the firm’s first in Canada. Construction on the 44-story tower started in February 2024 and is slated for completion next year.  The mixed-use condominium will house 371 units. Each of the flats at One Delisle will have balconies flush with greenery, like most of Toronto’s new residential towers. A large amenity space will rest above the tower’s podium level, where retail offerings will be located. Aerial view of Downsview Airport today (Courtesy Northcrest Developments) Downsview Airport Redevelopment | Henning Larsen Architects | 2031-2051 The redevelopment of Toronto’s defunct Downsview Airport is one of the largest urban design projects in North America today. Henning Larsen was behind the Downsview Framework Plan, which over the course of two decades, will realize a mixed-use community built atop the former airport. Northcrest Developments is the developer. The $30 billion project has a long list of associated designers, including: KPMB Architects, SLA Architects, SOM, Sasaki, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Field Operations, Claude Cormier + Associés, Perkins Eastman, Urban Strategies, and others.  The district will house 100,000 people spread across multiple buildings. It will be serviced by a new commuter rail station, and connect with two existing subway stations. The existing airport runway will be repurposed into a multi-modal transit hub connecting the sprawling neighborhoods. An existing airplane hanger will be retrofitted to a host a bevy of uses like coworking space, swanky cocktail hours, and more. The Hangar District is set to open in 2031. The overall masterplan should be completed 20 years later, in 2051.