This is The One
85-storey tower is rising at Yonge and Bloor, one of Canada’s most prominent intersections.
Mizrahi’s The One set to be tallest residential building in Canada, and maybe the ritziest
Last December, when Toronto real estate developer Sam Mizrahi travelled to Buffalo, it wasn’t to browse discount designer goods at one of the city’s many outlet malls. Instead, he was visiting an architectural modelling facility to inspect life- sized mockups for one of his upcoming projects, including whole sections of the facade. He was particularly eager to see how the glass he chose — lead- free, ultra- clear German windows that are often used in flight control towers — would look against the building’s champagne- coloured steel.
Not all developers fabricate such elaborate scale models with actual materials. But with The One, Mizrahi is under extra pressure to attain perfection. His 85- storey tower is currently rising at Yonge and Bloor, one of Canada’s most prominent intersections. Up to 70,000 people pass through the crossroads every day, where posh Yorkville meets the bustling Church-wellesley Village.
Adding to the high visibility, The One will lay claim to being Canada’s tallest residential building and second tallest overall — 1,014 feet high — when finished in 2023, bested only by the CN Tower, at 1,814 feet. It will also contain some of the country’s most expensive real estate: 650-square-foot units at The One start at $1.1 million.
So far, buyers seem willing to pay for the address. Most of the 416 condos have sold. Those remaining largely comprise the most expensive suites, The One’s so- called Limited Collection of penthouses — but that’s because they’ve only just launched this year. Taking up the top six floors of the building, each 9,000- square foot, full-storey unit costs $13 million. That’s expensive even by Toronto standards, placing The One at the top end of the luxury market.
Mizrahi, however, isn’t worried about attracting buyers. From the outset, when he acquired the land at Yonge and Bloor in 2014 for a reported $300 million, his goal was to create an iconic building geared toward luxury consumers. “I was thinking of the types of spaces you see on Fifth Avenue in New York or Michigan Avenue in Chicago or in Tokyo,” Mizrahi says. “I wanted something with the same sense of craftsmanship and detail, and I wasn’t seeing that in Canada.”
A key part of his vision was to have tall ceilings and sweeping open- floor plans, yet no columns interrupting the flow of space. “I wanted to take what I would call obstructions out of the architectural design,” he says. “I wanted to create uncontaminated spaces that allow retailers to create whatever brand experience they wanted on the ground floor. I wanted residential spaces with no columns and no pillars so people would individualize their own designs with unprecedented freedom.”
To achieve the seemingly
impossible — most buildings need columns, especially ultra-tall ones — he tapped one of the world’s most innovative architects. Norman Foster is the designer of Apple’s circle- shaped headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., along with the undulating, cloudlike glass canopy that hovers over the British Museum, and perhaps most famously the Gherkin, a pickle-shaped tower in Foster’s hometown of London.
“Foster really has no limits with what he thinks is possible,” says Mizrahi. “There’s nothing that I have ever asked him or his team that they told me cannot be done.”
To avoid interior columns, the British architect proposed an exoskeleton that braces the building from the outside. “At first, I thought that would not be esthetically pleasing,” says Mizrahi. “I wasn’t sure about putting the structural engineering on the exterior.” But Foster organized the cross- bracing and columns artfully — strong vertical lines crisscross in a chevron pattern — creating an esthetic both Art Deco and modernist.
“It looks even better in person,” says Mizrahi, having seen how the lines meet in Buffalo. “It’s like a jewel box — that’s how precisely the materials all come together. And the glass is so clear it’s like it’s not even there. The steel sparkles as though it’s dusted with crushed diamonds.”
Mizrahi’s commitment to design has drawn interest in The One’s commercial spaces, occupying the first 18 storeys of the tower. An Andaz luxury hotel will operate over 12 storeys. King Street Food Company, which runs the popular Toronto spots Buca and La Banane, has leased two floors for new restaurants. Rumours have it that Apple is interested in the ground-level retail.
To attract buyers for the Limited Collection, Mizrahi is pushing the building’s design even further. Although each unit is customizable, even the standard finishes will be planned with meticulous attention to detail. “We’ve considered everything from the way the grout aligns between the bathroom tiles to the way the screws are arranged in the door hinges,” says Mizrahi. “Nothing is too small.”
He’s also working on exclusive, one- off design features that include custom Italian- made crystal light fixtures. “When people come off the elevators into their Limited Collection suites, the chandeliers, the materials — everything — will be artisanal,” Mizrahi says. “It will have a craftsmanship way, way above what’s expected.”
Suites from $ 1.1 million. For more information, visit theone- bloorwestcondos. com or the sales centre at 181 Davenport Rd.