Breathtaking Toronto proposal swapped for boring design in monumental bait-and-switch

A stunning proposal to redevelop a key stretch of Toronto's waterfront has been quietly swapped out for the same old boring blandness, and don't act like you're so surprised right now.

Rising from the ashes of Google parent company Alphabet's aborted vision for a wired-up smart city of the future, a bold plan to redevelop what has become known as the Quayside lands drummed up newfound excitement in 2023.

Zoning for the first phase of the enormous new residential complex was approved in mid-2024, granting height envelopes for a block-long timber mid-rise and a trio of towers rising as high as 70 storeys.

But, like the ambitious plan that came before, the 2023 iteration of Quayside has been quietly whittled down to a much lesser vision now before Toronto city planners.

The 2023 vision for the Quayside site prior to the 2025 design revisions.

An updated application for the Quayside community, filed at the tail end of September, has shed much of what made the project special, replacing the grand architectural statements that won over locals with more of the same, boring condo design language that already dominates much of Toronto's urban fabric.

Updated 2025 plan for the Quayside site.

Individual building designs have been revised, and in some cases, previous architects were sent packing. 

Perhaps the greatest loss in this value engineering exercise is the former Timber House, a block-long Timber House building, which was to feature a wood-forward design from David Adjaye Associates, boasting a multi-storey opening carved into its base and housing affordable rental units.

The now-scrapped 2023 plan for Timber House would have been unlike any other building in Toronto.

In its place, a revised affordable housing component features a wall of masonry-clad cubes, designed by Teeple Architects.

Although not necessarily ugly, it represents a clear step backward from what was previously envisioned for the site.

One of the planning documents filed in late September explains the reasoning for this design change, stating that "Based on market soundings with non-profit ARH providers, it was determined that standalone sites should be prioritized. In revisiting the housing plan, this feedback was taken into account."

"The previous mass timber design included a dramatic cantilever and a significantly sized portal opening, both of which required substantial structural supports," the document explains, adding that "These structural requirements created challenges in achieving the desired number of affordable housing units and proportion of family-sized units for this project."

The document goes on to explain that, on top of the aforementioned factors, "there was a desire to rapidly deliver the affordable housing units in Quayside, requiring less complicated building strategies. As such, the project team decided on a move away from mass timber in lieu of typical construction material."

As for the towers, those, too, have been redesigned with new visions from Alison Brooks Architects and Henning Larsen Architects.

blogTO has reached out to Great Gulf seeking comment on changes to the previously shared designs.