The word "iconic" gets a lot of mileage in architecture discussions, being used to describe special buildings all over the world, large and small. Few buildings in a city, if any, should have this title bestowed upon them, as it should be saved for buildings that help to define a city and give it a sense of place. The obvious candidates in Toronto would be the CN Tower and City Hall, while many would have other particular favourites they'd also bestow that status upon.

In the Fall of 2012, we broke the news that Toronto-born starchitect Frank Gehry was working on a new project with theatre magnate David Mirvish, which in all likelihood will be fully worthy of iconic status. The Mirvish+Gehry Toronto plans for King Street West features 82 and 92-storey towers, each consisting of a main body and a smaller volume, with the two smaller volumes being referred to as 'Sentinels'. 

Mirvish+Gehry Toronto, image courtesy of Projectcore

We have watched the design evolve since the plans first went public back in 2012, with new scale models being revealed intermittently depicting various design changes and tweaks along the way. With the concept settled, now we can watch the design revolve. Shot on a turntable in Gehry's studio with a daylight spectrum light shining on it, the video below shows how the two towers might look—albeit in a sped up fashion—to anyone moving around the city, and as the sun crosses the sky. The waterfall effect of the glass certainly shows off every facet and detail of this major landmark development.

With Mirvish+Gehry approved, we look forward to the next steps for this game-changing development, and will return with updates as additional information becomes available. In the meantime, you can check out plenty of information and images regarding the project in the Mirvish+Gehry dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.