Toronto Architect Firm Ponders CN Tower as a Condo

Last year, a Toronto engineer made headlines for suggesting Toronto’s CN Tower could be torn down because it wasn’t valuable enough.

Translation: it could be replaced by condos.

It’s a pretty farfetched hypothesis, but one Toronto architect and design firm, Quadrangle, went ahead and imagined Toronto’s iconic needle as a condo.

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“Quadrangle’s proposal reinvents the landmark and in so doing also reinvents the tower as a symbol of Toronto’s ingenuity and progress. We hope that the design’s versatility inspires similar projects on other large-scale freestanding developments globally, increasing the value they bring to their home cities and environments,” reads a company press release.

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The firm’s preliminary design includes modular condo units constructed from cross-laminated timber (an increasingly popular construction material) affixed to the side of the tower. They even dressed the rendering in the type of language you’d find at any one of hundreds of condo sales centres around the city:

“Quadrangle saw an opportunity to reinvigorate the tower with desirable market condominiums, in an excellent location with unparalleled views, while maintaining the building’s existing and successful functions.”

#views, indeed.

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It’s a fascinating idea with many challenges, but given Toronto’s penchant for allowing real estate to dictate urban development, it might not be that insane.

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