New images of the Forma skyscrapers project that will be built on King Street West in Downtown Toronto, the capital of the province of Ontario in Canada, have been released. The images were released by Frank Gehry, a Canadian-born American architect and designer.
Featuring interiors by Paolo Ferrari, an award-winning Interior Designer known for commercial, restaurant & bar, and contemporary furniture design, the Forma project will include two towers, a 298-metre-tall western tower and a 262-metre-tall eastern tower.
Falling just short of the 300-metre mark for supertall skyscrapers, the western tower is the tallest building ever designed by the Los Angeles-based architect, beating his own 76-story residential skyscraper in Manhattan, 8 Spruce Street.
Upon completion, Forma Skyscrapers will house luxury condominiums as well as the Ontario College of Art and Design’s extension campus (OCAD).
Forma skyscrapers’ latest design overview
This latest iteration of the scheme, which has been in the works for nearly a decade, features two towers with offset blocks that stack on either side of voids. The voids give each tower the appearance of having multiple distinct parts. Each tower has two material schemes, creating a contrast that defines the towers. Smooth, reflective glass surfaces will be combined with stainless steel cladding that features sculptural folds that give the facade the appearance of rippling.
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There are strips of glazing between the blocks to emphasize the towers’ disjointed visual effect. Throughout the various designs for the development, Gehry has insisted that the towers represent what makes Toronto unique. He also revealed images of the lobby of the east tower, which he designed with inspiration from the Group of Seven, a group of well-known Canadian visual artists.
The lobby features limestone walls and Scandinavian-inspired furniture. The ceiling will be adorned with a Gehry-designed installation featuring a metallic “shimmering motif of maple leaves.” The Boundary, also show off some of the towers’ other interior spaces, which were designed by local architect Paolo Ferrari. The wood-panelled Creators’ Club, which has a structural ceiling with inset lighting, is one of several amenities spaces designed by Ferrari. His Grand Suite design includes a light-coloured living room with double-height ceilings and rough stone accents.
Project development
The original tower design, announced in 2012, called for three towers with slightly different shapes. These were updated in 2013 to include ribbon-like envelopes that wrapped around and connected the tower bases. After locals and city officials expressed outrage at the proposed demolition of a theatre, Gehry reduced the design to two towers in 2014.
The project was sold in 2017 by the original developer, art collector David Mirvish, to Great Gulf, a developer who stated that it would see the project through in collaboration with Westdale Properties and Dream Unlimited. The developers stated that they hope to finish the project by 2028.
