In August 2025, the City of Toronto designated the zone around Broadview and Danforth Avenues a Protected Major Transit Station Area (PMTSA). In response to this PMSTA designation, which recognizes that the existing neighbourhood has the transit infrastructure and population growth to support greater densification, our new mixed-use design proposal for Choice Properties includes two residential towers and a renovated grocery store that serves the larger Danforth community in east-end Toronto. 

The two high-rise structures share curved linguistic elements that simultaneously contrast and complement one another. A slimmer 39-storey structure to the south features a convex profile made of off-white precast concrete to create a distinctive yet demure silhouette. The upper portion of the building, which sits on a seven-storey podium, cantilevers away from the neighbourhood and over the edge of the ravine at the rear of the site. The massing of the 42-storey tower to the north is the result of designing from the inside out: the plan follows a “pinwheel” layout — four quadrants broken up by a radial sawtooth — that translates into an asymmetrical stepped relief pattern on the exterior. Clad in a red-hued precast cladding that matches the base of the building, the north tower consists of four slender volumes with textured elements and rounded corners that soften the overall shape. 

All cladding along the base of the buildings is red brick to cohere with the surrounding urban fabric and datum along Broadview. Because the site occupies higher ground in the neighbourhood, making it visible from downtown and the Don Valley Parkway, we gave very careful consideration to the buildings’ silhouettes when viewed from afar as well as the texture and resolution of the design details — lintels, curved panels, fluted edges — from up close.

The size and siting of each tower was similarly critical. The positioning of the north tower, which is closer to the subway station, avoids larger structural transfers over the store and loading areas, thereby reducing the project’s total embodied carbon. In order to preserve current parking access to the existing No Frills — one of the only large food retailers in the area — we minimized the footprint of the south tower and devised a phasing strategy that allows the store to remain open to the public throughout the first phase of construction. 

Our scheme for 720 Broadview also prioritizes a strong and activated public realm that correlates with the scale of the neighbourhood. A new POPS (privately-owned public space) in front of the south tower adjoins the mews, which sit at the heart of the site. 

Sitting at the nexus of so much of what defines Toronto, Broadview + Danforth is a truly precedent-setting project that embraces the local fabric and natural conditions to project a coherent and connected future.

Images: Secchi Smith