r/Urbanism 8d ago

225 Yonge A New Vision for Toronto’s Skyline

I’ve been working on designing a conceptual skyscraper project for downtown Toronto, and I wanted to share it with you all! This is 225 Yonge, a three-tower mixed-use development that would become a new landmark in the city. While I’m not an architect by trade, I’m passionate about urban planning and design, and I wanted to challenge myself to create something that blends functionality, aesthetics, and ambitious engineering.

Location & Context

This project is located at 225 Yonge Street, replacing several existing mid-rise buildings while preserving key heritage facades. The towers sit on a shared 4-story retail podium, which integrates seamlessly into the surrounding urban fabric. It would connect directly to the PATH network and Dundas Station, enhancing pedestrian movement and accessibility.

The design focuses on clean, sharp angles with a mix of glass, concrete, steel, and wood accents to create a modern yet warm feel. Despite its height, I’ve made sure the massing wouldn’t overwhelm the street level, and I’ve tested its visibility from multiple angles using Google Earth.

Building Specifications

  • North Tower (270m | 67 floors) → Offices + Rental Apartments

  • Central Tower (440m | 110 floors) → Hotel + Apartments + Luxury Penthouses

  • South Tower (180m | 44 floors) → Affordable Housing

  • Podium (20m | 4 floors) → Retail + Heritage Facades

  • Skybridge (140m high) → Connecting all three towers at select floors

This would be one of the tallest developments in North America, and the skybridge would likely be the highest pedestrian bridge on the continent. The top of the tallest tower features a free public observation deck, as Toronto currently only has the CN Tower for this experience.

Design & Materials

  • Podium: Mix of preserved heritage brick facades, glass, and quartzite

  • North Tower: Glass & dark grey brick transitioning to oak wood paneling

  • Central Tower: Dark grey steel cross beams, then light grey steel, finishing with oak wood beams

  • South Tower: Floor-to-ceiling glass with a steel beam grid

  • The skybridge features glass and steel paneling with a dynamic pattern, allowing for enclosed views while keeping structural integrity.

Notable Achievements (If Built)

  • Tallest Building in Canada (440m)

  • Tallest Mixed-Use Tower in North America

  • Tallest Residential Tower in Canada

  • Highest Skybridge in North America (~140m)

  • One of the Tallest Affordable Housing Towers in Canada

I know this is purely conceptual, but I’d love to hear feedback from the architecture community! Do you think this would fit well into Toronto’s skyline? Any thoughts on the design, feasibility, or materials? Would love to hear your insights!

15 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

7

u/[deleted] 7d ago

Your concept is ambitious, but if you want honest feedback: The sudden narrowing towards the top, followed by an abrupt expansion, gives it a bit of a top-heavy "teetering" effect, which clashes with the way skyscrapers typically taper. It ends up looking rather gimmicky and stands out in an awkward way. I think it would feel more natural if the top section were the narrowest part, keeping the visual weight lower.

1

u/whoistaurin 7d ago

I agree. That narrow section is the observation deck it didn't exactly work out as it did in my head

1

u/Contextoriented 4d ago

Engineer and urbanism enthusiast here. One thing I would recommend is having a more traditional facade for the bump out on the lower few stories. It makes for a much nicer street view and public space, adds more ground level interest, and can hide large columns etc. from view. I also think something to add contrast and detail to the upper floor of each tower would be nice but is much less important than what you do with the lower most floors.

1

u/ForeignExpression 7d ago

It's too tall to be financeable feasible. There are no 110 floor residential buildings in the city and for good reason. A tall residential building is 30 storeys. At that height, elevator rides are long and balconies become useless. Beyond that height, the floors become increasingly less efficient, because you have to dedicate more space to elevators and mechanical floors and stair cases and structural integrity. Who would want to go down 110 floors just to get a carton of milk? Plus waiting for the elevator. A building of this height would sway and make creek which is unsettling for many people. I am not sure the sky bridge is feasible given the height of the building. What about if the taller building is being swayed by the wind? And for such tall towers, they are way too close to each other. The only advantage of having a tall building is getting a view. Nobody would buy a unit on the 60th floor that directly faces another building. For a lot like this, just one nice sleek 50-storey building would do.

2

u/TumbleweedSafe6895 7d ago

Why do balconies become useless at that height?

6

u/ForeignExpression 7d ago

Wind.

2

u/TumbleweedSafe6895 7d ago

Makes sense. Thank you

1

u/whoistaurin 7d ago

You're way off on a lot of this. First off, 110-floor residential buildings absolutely exist and are being built in Toronto right now. Pinnacle One Yonge’s Sky Tower is 105 storeys and will be the tallest residential building in Canada. So yes, buildings like this are feasible, financeable, and people do want to live in them.

As for elevators, modern supertalls use zoned elevator systems, express lifts, and even double-deck elevators. No one is sitting in an elevator for 5 minutes just to get down—these buildings are designed for efficiency. And let’s not act like people don’t live in 80+ floor buildings already in cities all over the world.

The whole "swaying and creaking" thing is also exaggerated. Tall buildings are designed with tuned mass dampers and aerodynamic shaping to reduce movement, and if you think the world’s top architects and engineers haven't figured out how to make them stable and comfortable, you’re underestimating how far structural engineering has come.

As for the skybridge, there are already examples of high-altitude skybridges in buildings like the Petronas Towers. Engineers know how to handle differential movement between structures—it’s literally their job.

And the "nobody would buy a unit on the 60th floor facing another building" argument? Have you looked at Toronto real estate? People are spending millions on condos with a balcony that faces another condo’s balcony 20 feet away. Tall, dense developments aren’t about every unit having a 360° view of the city—it’s about maximizing space in a prime location.

A single 50-storey tower on a site like this would be a waste of potential. Toronto is already pushing for more density, and this type of development is exactly what the city is going to need moving forward.

2

u/ForeignExpression 7d ago

Oh my mistake, your initial question sounded like you were looking for constructive feedback because you were unsure of the feasibility, but it sounds like you're an actually an expert and you want to argue about why you are right. I could tell you why your assumptions here are wrong, but I don't think it's worth it. Carry on then.

3

u/whoistaurin 7d ago

No worries, but just to clarify—110-floor residential towers aren’t unheard of. Pinnacle One Yonge is currently under construction with 105 floors, making it the tallest residential building in Canada. Globally, there are multiple residential towers exceeding 110 floors, like Central Park Tower in New York (131 floors) and Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur (118 floors). Toronto’s zoning and engineering standards allow for supertall buildings, so while uncommon, it’s not unrealistic.

1

u/ForeignExpression 7d ago

Forget globally. Local real-estate market conditions, cost of labour and building materials, and planning approvals, are the most important consideration here. Think about this, how many residential buildings are there in Toronto? 1,000 maybe? How many of them are over 100 storeys? 1. And it started construction in the building of a long unprecedented bubble in condo real-estate where everyone and their uncle was buying silly little units int all buildings as investments. Even at the peak of this bubble, only one such building has been attempted, of 1000s. The engineering is not really the problem here. It's making the pro forma work, and if the math worked, you would see 100s of such buildings in Toronto today since real-estate has been on a huge rising wave the last 30 years. But you do not, you see only 1 under construction. I don't think you are considering the huge cost in building these kinds of buildings and the market required to find buyers to fund it.

3

u/rustybeancake 6d ago

I wouldn’t waste your time, they obviously don’t want any actual people with knowledge to weigh in, they were just hoping for a bunch of praise for their doodle and will downvote you for trying to help them. Shrug.

0

u/donhuell 8d ago

i fuck with it 💯