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The north side of Queen Street between Church and Jarvis streets — or more specifically within that stretch, the north side of Queen Street between Dalhousie and Mutual streets — was for years just a surface parking lot, the largest such lot in Downtown Toronto, running all the way up to Shuter Street. It seemed to take forever for redevelopment to arrive in the area, but it's gone gangbusters over the last decade, and on this block started with a 27-storey condo known as 88 North, fronting Shuter Street. Since then, the rest of the lot has been redeveloped with three more towers: two rental towers of 27 and 28 storeys by Fitzrovia named The Elm and The Ledbury, recently awkwardly restyled as Elm — Ledbury, but now, 88 Queen anchors the complete makeover of this block with a 52-storey mixed-use condo fronting on Queen.
The initial north and now south towers are both from St Thomas Developments, and this final phase of the redevelopment, designed for them by Hariri Pontarini Architects and Turner Fleischer Architects, has progressed since our last update, not only having topped off, but also having planned office space in the podium converted into hotel soace.
88 Queen's ascent has been closely watched and hotly debated on the UrbanToronto Forum, where the distinctive cladding has garnered mixed reactions.
In the high-angle view below, taken in December, 2023, the west and south elevations were clad roughly three-fourths of the way up the tower — window wall systems of white powder-coated aluminum interspersed with pale mint-green spandrel panels — while work at the mechanical penthouse level indicated the project had just about completed its climb. Standing out among the neighbouring developments providing comparison and contrast, to the southwest are the dual volumes of Yonge & Rich Condos, it more eye-catching volume sporting a high-contrast pattern akin to a crossword puzzle, while mint-green glass balcony guards cover its west volume.
This month, in a telephoto image shot from south of the Gardiner Expressway, shows the crane standing proud of where the last elements of the mechanical penthouse are being installed, bringing the tower to a height of 167.35m. 88 Queen's south elevation reveals the gradual rise of its central fins — a striking feature that will draw the eye vertically and accentuate the building's height as more it the fins are affixed to the structure. The rhythm created by 88 Queen's cladding is beginning to be displayed on the lower third of the building.
Close up, crews slow traffic on Queen Street East in this view looking northwest, where the podium shows off quite a different cladding from the tower levels, its extruded bronze-coloured mullions and transoms surrounding punched windows.
In this view gazing upward, we take in the curved pocket at the centre of the Queen Street wall: the arc of the glass curtain wall — many of the finishing elements are yet to be applied — is poised above a ground level outdoor walk-through to a retail-lined pedestrian mews that continues north between the Elm and Ledbury towers.
Ground-level activities hustle along the west elevation of the podium on Dalhousie Street. Here, a blue boom lift hovers by the third storey, its extended arm holding crew members attending to the installation of the curtain wall system. To the left, a brown brick facade on The Elm harks back to more traditional masonry of brick and beam buildings, integrating with the contemporary glass and metal components to the right.
Finally, we look back at the west elevation from Queen and Bond streets. Now clad in its entirety save for the uppermost level, the arrangement of 88 Queen's window wall system can best be made out; windows cocooned in white powder-coated aluminum frames, mullions, and transoms, with mint-green spandrel panels creating a checkerboard effect.
While much work continues on its interiors, 88 Queen is being prepared for occupancy later this year, set to offer 587 residential units alongside 160 hotel rooms, plus retail and restaurants at ground level.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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This story has been corrected to reference Shuter Street.
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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.
