Toronto’s skyline is getting no shortage of soaring new towers, but one of the city’s most anticipated condo developments is turning heads for an entirely different reason.
KING Toronto, the striking 16-storey development rising at 489 King Street West, is looking increasingly like the dramatic glass mountain range envisioned when the project was first revealed.
Rather than competing for height, the development makes its statement through architecture. Designed by internationally renowned Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the complex rises and falls across the site in a series of peaks, slopes and valleys — creating a sculptural silhouette unlike almost anything else in Toronto.
The Glass Mountains Are Nearly Complete
After roughly six years of construction, KING Toronto is now approaching its finished appearance.
The development reached its full 16-storey height in 2024, and much of the recent work has focused on installing its distinctive exterior. Glass blocks and punched windows now cover almost the entire complex, revealing how closely the finished building will resemble the ambitious early renderings.
Eventually, greenery is expected to cascade across portions of the stepped glass exterior, further emphasizing the project’s mountain-like design and creating an unusual combination of architecture and landscape in the middle of King West.
A Passage Through the Mountain
One of KING Toronto’s most interesting features will actually be found at ground level.
A dramatic three-storey passageway cuts directly through the development, connecting King Street West with Wellington Street to the south. Designed almost like a cave carved through the base of a mountain, the passage opens into a central courtyard before continuing toward the park behind the development.
The result is intended to make the massive complex feel permeable rather than closed off, allowing pedestrians to move directly through the site while creating new public spaces within it.
440 New Homes in King West
Once complete, KING Toronto will introduce 440 condominium residences to one of downtown Toronto’s busiest neighbourhoods, along with new retail and commercial spaces at street level.
And one of its future residents is already rather famous.
Music legend Elton John and his Toronto-born husband David Furnish purchased one of the development’s four exclusive “mountaintop” residences. Their home, known as The Treehouse, occupies one of the peaks of the complex and will serve as a Toronto residence for the couple and their family.
While Toronto’s newest skyscrapers may continue competing to become the tallest buildings in Canada, KING Toronto proves that height isn’t the only way to transform a skyline.
Sometimes, 16 storeys of extraordinary architecture can make just as much noise as 100.
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