Dazzling photos show Toronto's 'mountain range' condo coming to life

Toronto condo design is rarely described as "daring" or "innovative," and most new additions to our copy-paste glass-box skyline follow the standard local template of safe, blandness geared toward investors.

But every once in a while, we do get a nice thing, evidenced by the artificial mountain range now looming over King Street West.

It's far from the tallest building to rise in recent years, but the mountainous peaks of the KING Toronto development have wowed passersby on the busy King West nightlife strip since they began to ascend above street level at 489 King St W., between Spadina and Portland, in 2022.

Rising as high as 16 storeys to a height of over 57 metres, the trio of concrete peaks from developers Westbank Corp and Allied Properties REIT will feature a mix of condos, office, and retail space.

Westbank shared new images of the topped-out structure this week, showing off the rising exterior cladding.

KING Toronto marks the first Toronto project for acclaimed Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG, and the world-renowned design house is certainly making a splash with the structure's unique glass block exterior.

Six years into construction, the sculptural building's complex design is now coming to fruition. The painstaking job of forming the non-repeating floor layouts was completed in 2024, and work has since moved on to execution of the building's sleek glass block exterior.

One standout feature of the complex is a planned central public courtyard carved into the lower floors that will form a new mid-block pedestrian connection linking the hustle and bustle of King Street West with the quieter ambiance of Wellington Street West to the south.

Preconstruction renderings depict these glass-block slopes and cliffsides draped in greenery, though this design element may take years to develop and give the artificial landscape a natural finishing touch.

KING Toronto will add 440 new condominium units to the bustling King West strip. Among the building's future residents, multi-platinum recording legend Elton John purchased one of the four "mountaintop" units occupying the complex's peak, dubbed "The Treehouse," to live in with his Toronto-born husband David Furnish and their teen sons.