Dezeen Magazine

Super skinny Toronto

BDP Quadrangle designs super-skinny skyscraper for Toronto

The Canadian branch of UK architecture studio BDP has released designs for the 15 Toronto Street super-skinny skyscraper in the city's financial district.

BDP Quadrangle designed the 54-storey tower to replace a 10-storey office tower built in the 1960s. The 209,450-square-foot (19,459-square-metre) tower will contain residential and office units, with amenities on the ground floor and on the 11th.

"What 15 Toronto lacks in width it more than makes up for in height," said BDP Quadrangle project architect Emily Li. "Standing at 54 storeys upon completion, it will have no trouble standing out amongst its peers in the city's financial district."

super skinny toronto
BDP Quadrangle has designed a super skinny skyscraper called 15 Toronto Street

Typically, a super skinny skyscraper — also known as a pencil tower — is one that has a height at least ten times greater than its width.

Renderings released by the studio show a structure on the corner in Toronto's financial district with stone-covered facades at the base.

At ground level, the structure will have a recessed entrance with a row of collonades around the base that extend the sidewalk space towards the ground level.

BDP noted that many skyscrapers have a "belt" that shrinks the width of the skyscraper so as to "prevent pedestrians from feeling overwhelmed by the height of the building from ground level".

However, given 15 Toronto Street's already-small site, the architecture studio said that "shrinking it even further several storeys up would only further limit the usable space".

"As a result, designers and architects at BDP Quadrangle decided to go with a relatively smaller belt and on a higher floor," said BDP Quadrangle. "This provides enough space for an amenities garden without sacrificing too much usable space."

It will be 54-storeys tall
It is in Toronto's financial district

The "belt" on the eleventh floor is represented on the facade by a slight recess surrounded by columns. This outdoor space will hold a restaurant. The skyscraper will stand next to a historic 19th-century building.

"As a result, every caution must be taken to avoid harm to nearby structures as well as to not prevent the already busy street from slowing to a crawl," said the architecture studio.

In total, the building will hold 278 apartments, with penthouses on the 52nd and 53rd floors.

Super skinny skyscraper in Toronto's financial district ground floor
It will be built next to a 19th-century building

BDP was founded in 1961 in Preston, UK, and BDP Quadrange, the Canadian branch, was founded in 1986. In 2016, the company was bought by a Japanese firm.

New York City has been the locus for super-skinny skyscrapers. This year, we rounded up seven super skinny skyscrapers in the American city that are redefining the skyline.

The images are courtesy of BDP Quadrangle.