In April 2020, a penthouse at KING Toronto sold for $16 million, the highest condo sale in Toronto that year or the year after. In recent weeks, developers Westbank and Allied released KING Toronto’s final set of penthouses.
On Toronto’s King Street West, KING Toronto, a mixed-use development now under construction, stacks terraced units into four “mountain peaks” that overlook a central courtyard. Each unit faces out at a 45-degree angle, creating an undulating appearance that contrasts with typical flat building facades. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and inspired by Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67 and Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre, KING Toronto offers downtown Toronto a distinctly different architectural style.
KING Toronto’s six penthouses sit atop its four peaks. The name of each penthouse reflects the custom designs by BIG. Treehouse features an indoor mature planted tree, for instance, while Bibliothèque has a two-floor library. The final two penthouses are the Glass House and the Sanctuary.
The Glass House is a 3-bedroom, 3.5-bath unit with 2,919 interior square feet and 640 exterior square feet. A gray marble fireplace forms the centerpiece of the main double-height living room. Dark steel elements include a staircase and floor-to-ceiling wine storage. The Glass House also includes a library, in addition to a series of terraces and balconies.
The Sanctuary is a 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath unit with 2,026 interior square feet and 516 exterior square feet. It keeps with the modern industrial theme of its neighbor, the Glass House. Likewise light-filled and open, the Sanctuary also has multiple glass-block walls and features a floating fireplace in blackened steel and a staircase of deep black oak.
When complete, KING Toronto will include 440 residential homes and 150,000 square feet of workspace and retail.
Building Team:
Architect of record: Diamond Schmitt
Mechanical engineer: Reinbold Engineering Group
Electrical engineer: Nemetz (S/A) & Associates Ltd.
Structural engineer: RJC Engineers
General contractor/construction manager: EllisDon
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Platinum Award: The Handmade Building
When Milwaukee's City Hall was completed in 1896, it was, at 394 feet in height, the third-tallest structure in the United States. Designed by Henry C. Koch, it was a statement of civic pride and a monument to Milwaukee's German heritage. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2005.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gulf Coast Hotel's Stormy Road to Recovery
After his initial tour of the dilapidated 1850s-era Battle House Hotel, Ron Blount, construction manager with Retirement Systems of Alabama, said to his boss: “You need a priest more than you need a contractor.” Those words were more prescient to RSA's restoration of the historic Mobile landmark than he could have known at the time.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Products
14. Mod Pod A Nod to Flex Biz Designed by the British firm Tate + Hindle, the OfficePOD is a flexible office space that can be installed, well, just about anywhere, indoors or out. The self-contained modular units measure about seven feet square and are designed to serve as dedicated space for employees who work from home or other remote locations.
| Aug 11, 2010
8 Tips for Converting Remnant Buildings Into Schools
Faced with overcrowded schools and ever-shrinking capital budgets, more and more school districts are turning to the existing building stock for their next school expansion project. Retail malls, big-box stores, warehouses, and even dingy old garages are being transformed into high-performance learning spaces, and at a fraction of the cost and time required to build classrooms from the ground up.
| Aug 11, 2010
Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design
When tasked with transforming an early 1920s Italian Renaissance bank building into a fully functional library for the Rhode Island School of Design, the Building Team for RISD's Fleet Library found itself at odds with the project's two main goals. On the one hand, the team would have to carefully restore and preserve the historic charm and ornate architectural details of the landmark space, d...
| Aug 11, 2010
John Adams Courthouse
After more than a century without a substantial renovation, Old Suffolk County Courthouse, designed in Neo-Classical style by Boston's first city architect, George Clough, was overdue for a facelift. Enter the makeover team: Boston-based architects Childs, Bertman, Tseckares and general contractors Suffolk Construction/NER Construction Management.
| Aug 11, 2010
Lifestyle Hotel Trends Around the World
When the Rocco Forte Collection opens the Verdura Golf & Spa Resort in Sicily in early 2009, the 200-room luxury property will be one of the world's newest lifestyle hotels. Lifestyle hotels cater to guests seeking a heightened travel experience, which they deliver by offering distinctive—some would say avant-garde, or even outrageous—architecture, room design, amenities, and en...
| Aug 11, 2010
Special Recognition: Kingswood School Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Kingswood School is perhaps the best example of Eliel Saarinen's work in North America. Designed in 1930 by the Finnish-born architect, the building was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style, with wide overhanging hipped roofs, long horizontal bands of windows, decorative leaded glass doors, and asymmetrical massing of elements.
| Aug 11, 2010
Giants 300 Index and Methodology
BD+C's annual Giants 300 list consists of U.S. firms that designed or constructed the largest volume of commercial, institutional, industrial, and multifamily residential buildings in 2008. Each spring, the editors survey the country's largest firms, ranking the top 300 across six categories: architects, architect/engineers, engineers, engineer/architects, contractors, and construction managers.
| Aug 11, 2010
Joint-Use Facilities Where Everybody Benefits
Shouldn’t major financial investments in new schools benefit both the students and the greater community? Conventional wisdom says yes, of course. That logic explains the growing interest in joint-use schools—innovative facilities designed with shared spaces that address the education needs of students and the community’s need for social, recreation, and civic spaces.
