The One lives up to its name.
The 85-story skyscraper under construction in downtown Toronto is already Canada’s tallest residential building. At 1,005-feet tall, it towers above the neighboring buildings of what is now North America’s most-expensive city.
Defined as “supertall” by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, The One will offer 416 “elegant homes of unrivalled quality,” according to the website of building designer Mizrahi Developments, which is led by builder, Sam Mizrahi.
The building has a unique lattice-like exoskeleton and is still under construction in Yorkville, the center of Toronto’s commercial and cultural life. The building “offers limitless elegance, with truly adaptable interior floor plans and exterior inter-connecting gardens, the home becomes a crafted oasis,” the website said. “At street level, space and transparency brings a new grace and style to the city.”
The building is designed by Foster + Partners, a firm famous for its exoskeleton designs. The One, for example, is similar to the Gherkin in London, England, an iconic development in its own right.
The idea is simple — if not in execution: Create a super structure in which the support for the building is mainly on the exterior, allowing for interiors that maximize exposure to the sunlight. It’s like a shell of that unique deep-sea creature: the nautilus. Its shell – essentially an external skeleton – supports and protects the soft body inside.
The One won’t be just for residences, either. It’s a mixed-use development designed to take advantage of its location — one of the busiest intersections in Toronto.
“We wanted this to be the Rockefeller Center or the Chrysler Building or the Empire State Building for Toronto. And this is the corner to do it in,” Sam Mizrahi said in an interview with Dolce Mag back in 2014.
Though still under construction, The One will include many features, like a rooftop terrace, gardens, pools, restaurants, underground parking for residents and the public, as well as a connection to the underground PATH network for easy access to the subway. Like most luxury buildings, it will also have doormen and valet services.
Located in the middle of the Mink Mile, one of Toronto’s busiest shopping districts, The One will also have a strong retail presence. Sam Mizrahi said that the building’s retail space has been custom-designed to avoid any columns or pillars that could obstruct the street-level view of flagship stores from world-class brands.
Although the retail spaces will open to the public sooner, the building isn’t expected to be completed until 2022 or 2023.
