What styles of architecture is Toronto using in new developments?

[Admiral Beez]

I not a student of architecture or design, but I've enjoy going on guided architectural tours in Manhattan and Chicago. In those tours we're told of the styles and eras of the different condo and office buildings. I especially liked the river tour in Chicago, where we were told that the city forced the new Trump tower to meet some design elements.

In Toronto, when I look at the condos of the last ten years or so, plus those building today, they seem to be of much the same design. A rectangle on its end with a concrete base containing some retail, with exteriors nearly entirely of glass and steel panels, with glass balconies sticking out or sometimes held back within the exterior wall. You can tell in some cases the designers have tried to differentiate though use of different facades, such as coloured steel panels or replacing some of the steel panels with brick facade. There are of course exceptions, where cylinders replace rectangles, for example. However to me, almost all of Toronto's 1990s-2014 new tower construction looks like it came out of the same catalogue.

So, it's 2025, and you're giving a guided tour of Toronto architecture. How do your describe the Toronto's 21st century architecture?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Try Neomodern

AoD

 

[Tewder]

Yes, neomodern is dominating new blank-slate construction. The other 'trend' I see having its imprint on the city is that of blending an existing heritage structure with a neomodern addition/tower.

 

[ehlow]

The Chicago river tour was awesome.

I took a class about Toronto architecture and the prof said that styles don't tend to get official names until years later. Having said that there's clearly a modernist influence.

 

[buildup]

The proposed Mirvish/Gehry would be Abstract Expressionism.

 

[junctionist]

It's deconstructivism--the architecture deconstructs the traditional box tower with ripples that appear to erode or melt the facade, curving forms and twisted tops that look like they're about to fall over. Gehry is the master of deconstructivism.

 

[Lenser]

M-G is radical cubism. I thought everyone knew that.

Or was that acid cubism? Jeez, I can never get those two straight.

 

[buildup]

The proposed Mirvish/Gehry would be Abstract Expressionism.

Sorry, my mistake. Gehry describes his own style as "Expressionist". Page 506 of "Modernism, The Lure of Heresy, from Baudelaire to Beckett and beyond" Peter Gay.
Great reading btw.

 

[Memph]

Is it ok if we include non-highrise?

I would say this style is the most popular for new homes in SE Oakville now.

Looks kind of West Coast?