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As 2024 kicks into gear, our last tip of the hat back to 2023 is to celebrate your favourite new buildings completed last year in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. Over the Holiday break, our readership voted on UrbanToronto's 10th Annual Year-End Poll. A record 73 projects were eligible for best-of-the-year honours, so we aimed to make comparisons a little easier by splitting them into more categories. Votes were cast, and champions were crowned! Announcing the winners of the 2023 Year-End Poll!
6-7 Storeys (13 Entries) and 8-9 Storeys (12 Entries):
There were so many buildings completed between 6 and 9 storeys in 2023 — those we typically find lining our main streets — that for the first year, we split them into two categories. Short enough that many of these did not required rezoning to get built, most but not all are residential with retail at grade level. Standing out from the crowd in the fewer storeys category was a building unlike the rest, and which ran away with the most votes. In the distance in second place was a building judged the best of residential entries.
1. Centennial College: Progress Campus A Block (47.52%)
2. 57 Brock (15.51%)
Pull up the rear here were a hotel near Pearson and another residential building in Hamilton.
12. Holiday Inn Express Pearson (0.50%)
13. The Delta Lofts (0.25%)
Voting was more evenly split among the 8- and 9-storey entries. Here, what stood out was smooth curves from among a mostly boxy group, with a condo beside Lake Ontario in Port Credit taking top honours. Very close behind was an urbane condo in The Junction.
1. 55 Port Street East (20.6%)
2. Junction House (18.98%)
At the end of the pack were residential buildings in Oakville and Hamilton.
11. The Branch (1.86%)
12. Jack Macdonald Apartments (1.74%)
10-14 Storeys (10 Entries):
In the first of our mid-rise categories, our winner is a residential building rising beside the Cooksville Creek in Mississauga, while a retirement residence in Don Mills took the runner up position.
1. Rise at Stride Condos (26.18%)
2. Don Mills Retirement Residence (21.34%)
Not doing so well were an Oakville rental apartment building and a seniors residence on Markham.
9. 297 Queens Avenue (4.09)
10. Unionville Home Society Redevelopment (2.23%)
15-19 Storeys (9 Entries):
At the upper end of our mid-rise categories, two projects were neck-and-neck, but edging out the competition were the shorter two towers of Maple House at Canary Landing in Toronto's West Don Lands. Just behind it, several kilometres to the north was Scala, a distinctively terraced condo in North York.
1. Maple House at Canary Landing (28.16%)
2. Scala (26.55%)
Making up the bottom of the pack were a Mississauga rental apartment building, and a long-shot that didn't pay off in Durham Region.
8. Sheridan Crossing (0.87%)
9. Pickering Casino Resort (0.62%)
20-24 Storeys (9 Entries):
Two institutional buildings killed it in this category, leaving the residential entries in their dust. Taking top honours here was the first phase of a new building across from Queen's Park on the University of Toronto Campus, while the latest addition to SickKids Hospital's suite of buildings, just a block or so to the south, came in a solid second.
1. U of T: Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre (62.9%)
2. Hospital For Sick Children: Patient Support Centre (24.19%)
Of the residential buildings, all far behind, the farthest behind were a Vaughan condo and a Midtown rental.
8. D'Or Condos (0.99%)
9. The Whitney on Ridpath (0.62)
25-34 Storeys (8 Entries):
In this range, we have our first ever double winner for one project. Maple House, which we split into two because UrbanToronto readership indicated they were well aware over the course of construction that the two shorter towers were mostly designed by COBE Architects of Copenhagen and the distinctive taller tower — know as East Maple House — was mostly designed by local shop architects—Alliance. Both ended up as solid favourites, so both teams go home with trophies! Quite a ways back in second was a Church-Wellesley Village condo.
1. Maple House at Canary Landing (62.72%)
2. Eighty-One Wellesley (13.36%)
Just glad for a few votes each, projects in North York and Richmond Hill ended up in a dead heat.
7. Casa Emery Village (0.64%)
7. ERA at Yonge Condos (0.64%)
35-49 Storeys (8 Entries):
One project that we didn't split in two, but which did pose the question, "Should we split this into multiple categories?" was The Well… but despite there being seven buildings each with particular attributes and nearly as many architects behind it all, The Well is just too well integrated to cut up… and to no-one's surprise, The Well romped to victory in this category, with the highest percentage vote and the largest margin of the poll, while a rental building just a block to the north came in second.
1. The Well (67.29%)
2. The Taylor (11.4%)
Two Markham condo projects divided up the votes that were left over:
7. Riverview Condos (1.5%)
8. Pavilia Towers (1.38%)
50+ Storeys (4 Entries):
There are only four entries that stand similarly high — 50 storeys and above — on our various GTHA skylines that were completed last year. One uniquely sculpted project in Mississauga with two towers was the clear favourite, but the runners up in Toronto and Vaughan pulled in a respectable number of votes too:
1. M1 and M2 at M City (59.45%)
2. Sugar Wharf Condominiums Phase 1 (22.8%)
3. Transit City Condos: TC4 & TC5 (9,57%)
4. The Rosedale on Bloor (8.19%)
There we have the results of the UrbanToronto's 2023 Year-End Poll. Congratulations to the winners and runners up in each category!
If you want to catch a preview of what might be on the list next year, be sure to keep an eye out for our monthly topping off stories that report on the hottest projects of each month! Until then, you can learn more about each of the top projects by visiting the database files linked below, or through the links in the story above, and, if you like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated forum threads.
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UrbanToronto has a research service, UrbanToronto Pro, that provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Toronto Area—from proposal through to completion. We also offer Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
