Toronto One Bloor West | 308.6m | 85s | Tridel | Foster + Partners

A big moment for Toronto architecture for sure! And here are some photos I took today of something I had never seen here in the 55 years since I took my first photos of Toronto's skyline - a supertall building! Of course, that term didn't exist until recent decades and back then the threshold to look at was 1,000 ft., not 300 m. Which will be the next milestone, btw...

I had an intuition this building would be special, beyond its milestone height, so I resolved to document its rise, and have created a running picture show of it as it first rose above the sidewalks in 2020. Part of my sorta love letter to Toronto, in photographs.

With the loss of both the Ontario Science Centre and Ontario Place, two glorious examples of late 60s and early 70s architecture, let's encourage all to celebrate and commemorate our architectural gems. I think this is turning into one.

Photos taken today, Tuesday, I believe the pieces were placed on Monday. A blazing day, was 34 degrees, probably 42 with the humidex as I took these. Shots from Dundas and Sorauren, Dundas and Sterling, from around Bloor and Symington and from Bloor and Perth over the sidewalk. The new beams are kinda lost in the sky in some shots as they are of a lighter colour than the beams below, but are very obvious in a few shots, especially the first one, to the immediate left of the crane.


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rbt said:
There's an outpost at the India/TIbet border which is ~6000m + 3m; but I'm not calling it the tallest building in the world.
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SkylineHorizons said:
No fair that's cheating!! 😠
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I agree, SkyH. Not sure we should consider its height above the shoreline at Halifax harbour! 😄 That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
 
Johnny Au said:
It is very unfortunate that the opportunity for One Bloor West to have a publicly accessible observation deck so Toronto can have its own version of New York City's Top of the Rock attraction has been wasted. Tridel could have generated revenue from the attraction.
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Hear hear!
 
Johnny Au said:
It is very unfortunate that the opportunity for One Bloor West to have a publicly accessible observation deck so Toronto can have its own version of New York City's Top of the Rock attraction has been wasted. Tridel could have generated revenue from the attraction.
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The elevators are already set up, all through the building, to service only residential suites above the hotel. There's just no way to simply squeeze another elevator shaft in (and likely more than one would be needed) after-the-fact, and no way to redo the elevator lobbies to separate the access areas for an observation deck from the resident lobbies. All of that was cast in concrete long ago. Not that an observation deck would have been bad here, it would have been great!

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interchange42 said:
The elevators are already set up, all through the building, to service only residential suites above the hotel. There's just no way to simply squeeze another elevator shaft in (and likely more than one would be needed) after-the-fact, and no way to redo the elevator lobbies to separate the access areas for an observation deck from the resident lobbies. All of that was cast in concrete long ago. Not that an observation deck would have been bad here, it would have been great!

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How unfortunate.

By the way, here's a photo from June 22, 2025 taken from Davenport and Berryman:

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interchange42 said:
The elevators are already set up, all through the building, to service only residential suites above the hotel. There's just no way to simply squeeze another elevator shaft in (and likely more than one would be needed) after-the-fact, and no way to redo the elevator lobbies to separate the access areas for an observation deck from the resident lobbies. All of that was cast in concrete long ago. Not that an observation deck would have been bad here, it would have been great!

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I imagine that elevator access for residents being already at a premium, that they would lose one to a public observation deck would be unthinkable here.
 
I don't think this tower would have been built any quicker if the financing of it all worked out. In fact, it probably would have taken longer because they would be to want to build this to 94 stories. So history is the likely the reason why this tower is being topped out this year as opposed to next.
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
I imagine that elevator access for residents being already at a premium, that they would lose one to a public observation deck would be unthinkable here.
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It's not just a case of taking away an elevator to service an observation deck (and assuming the deck were successful, there's no way only one elevator would suffice). As I said earlier, you would also need to separate the elevator lobbies to keep deck traffic away from residential traffic, so there would need to be an entirely new space to act as deck reception that simply does not exist. What's being asked for would have needed to have been planned years ago.

There are other tall proposals in the area (including next door, in fact, where they are actually planning to go higher). Those buildings could be planned in advance to have a deck if the developers wanted. It would be good if one of them did. Before the 1200 Bay plans were shelved, there was to be a restaurant at the top of it. In the meantime, you can always book a reservation atop the Manulife Centre, and its view is no slouch.

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UtakataNoAnnex said:
So the the slow-out-the-gate turtle of One Bloor West finally beat out the sprinting rabbit of Pinnacle One in the race to the 300 mark...folks will be glad I wasn't taking bets on this. <3
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Well good thing they only had to put up I beams to do it and didn't have to pour concrete, otherwise it probably would have taken them a couple more months. 🥴

In any case as they say; it may have won the battle, but ultimately it will lose the war. 😼
 
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