510 yonge street toronto

Stunning condo tower would feature the tallest brick exterior in Toronto

A project's evolution through Toronto's planning and approvals process often involve a trip back to the drawing board, as is the case with a recent development application calling for a glitzy new condo tower at 510 Yonge Street.

If the address sounds familiar, that's because another high-profile proposal previously landed at this site, one that has since been reworked with an entirely new design.

510 yonge street toronto

Developer KingSett Capital tabled their initial plan in late 2020, and after two years, have returned with an updated proposal, once again designed by architects BDP Quadrangle.

As with its predecessor, the proposal calls for a 59-storey condo tower, though in place of its curved massing, a more traditional rectilinear design has been introduced.

The site includes a row of properties, including what used to be the popular St. Louis at the southwest corner of Yonge and Breadalbane Street, currently a location of The Fry, as well as Pokewave and T-Swirl Crepe.

Several businesses would be lost if the proposal is approved, though many of the buildings on this stretch would be retained and even restored into the tower base, allowing this portion of Yonge Street to maintain its fine-grain street frontages.

510 yonge street toronto

The building calls for over 40,600 square metres of space, dedicating over 98 per cent of that towards residential area, with just over 775 square metres of retail space in the base.

Included in the mix are 568 condominium units and 19 rental replacements for a total of 587 units, proposed in a breakdown of 104 studios, 318 one-bedrooms, 104 two-bedrooms, and 61 three-bedroom units.

And while the curves may be gone, that in no way means this is another boring condo tower for the pipeline.

They don't build 'em like they used to, and though the days of the brick skyscraper in Toronto are long gone, the material is still alive and well in the local architecture scene, primarily as an exterior material.

510 yonge street toronto

New builds have increasingly been using the generations-old construction material as a way to either stand out or tie in with the existing built form lower to the ground, as was seen with rental tower The Selby a few years back, which features real bricks embedded into its facades.

It may not be true brick construction, but that tower, and the even more recent PJ Condos on Adelaide East easily stand as Toronto's tallest brick-faced buildings, a very specific title that could soon be passed on to this new proposal.

Details of the cladding are minimal beyond what is indicated in renderings, listed in architectural diagrams in a not-at-all-helpful legend as an "exterior cladding panel" system.

It's safe to say that bricks will be pre-fabricated into panels rather than sending bricklayers almost 60 storeys in the sky.

Lead photo by

BDP Quadrangle


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