Longtime plan to plop towers onto century-old Toronto landmark back from the dead

An almost century-old Toronto landmark could soon get a pair of modern vertical additions that would further transform the city's ultra-dense Financial District.

The federal government constructed the Dominion Public Building at 1 Front St. W. over a nine-year period between 1926 and 1935, designed in the same Beaux-Arts neoclassical style as Union Station just across Bay Street to the west.

The five-storey edifice has been a fixture for nine decades, but a long-looming plan to plop density atop the stately limestone structure could soon shake up the long-established aesthetic of this beloved landmark.

Plans for a single tower addition above the Dominion Public Building date all the way back to the mid-1990s, and the long saga of planning for towers on this site continues through the mid-2020s.

The first approvals for redevelopment came with a 1996 settlement between the City of Toronto and the federal government, negotiated at the then-named Ontario Municipal Board (now the Ontario Land Tribunal), permitting a tower envelope up to 137 metres above the existing building.

Heritage details of the Dominion Public Building at 1 Front St. W. Photo. BobNoah/Shutterstock.

However, the 1990s downturn in the office and residential markets hampered the project's advance. A City-implemented Heritage Conservation District around the building in 2006, and the property's 2016 designation under the Ontario Heritage Act added further complications to any potential redevelopment plans.

But even after decades on ice, redevelopment plans were far from dead.

Just months after that heritage designation, Canada Lands Company announced the building had been put up for sale, and it was quickly scooped up by Larco Investments in early 2017.

In 2018, Larco proposed a two-tower rental complex with hotel and retail space designed by architects—Alliance, and City Council granted zoning for the plan's 49- and 45-storey towers in 2020.

Five years later, there is again some movement for this plan following proposed alterations for the existing heritage property. These alterations, recommended for approval by the City, introduce minor changes to the 2020 plan, as it appears Larco is finally preparing to realize its vision for the site.

Toronto's real estate market has put the future of many high-rise developments in doubt. However, Larco's rental-focused plan was clearly future-proofed for the downturn in condo sales now weighing heavily on the local housing scene.

In fact, almost nothing has been changed from the 2020 plan aside from proposed modifications to the buildings' openings along the Front Street elevations. Of the 18 planned openings, 14 are modified in the 2025 plan, while seven windows surrounding the main entrance block would be lowered to accommodate new retail space introduced in the new version.