I had breakfast last week with some colleagues from Edmonton who were here for meetings with prospective clients.
In their free time, they took a driving tour of the city and were quick to tell me how impressed they were with the number of construction cranes here, but more-so the quality of our condominium building design.

Quantity is a very nice thing, particularly if you’re from a quieter market, but I was most pleased with the design compliment because I’ve said it myself many times.

Being quite frank with them, I explained that 10 years ago, we were doing cookie-cutter condo buildings.  With intense competition, our condo developers and designers are now churning out unique and beautiful buildings, inside and out, all throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

It’s too bad my Edmonton guys had to return on Wednesday, because for all they saw, I could have shown them a lot more great stuff. For example, they didn’t get to see the Absolute Towers (a.k.a. Marilyn Monroe) in Mississauga.
I would also have brought them by the ground-breaking ceremony for Great Gulf Homes’ One Bloor development which took place last Friday morning.

At 70 storeys and 700+ units, that building alone is quantity, but the awesome building design is what is most impressive.

Right across the road from One Bloor I could see The Uptown, a beautiful, new art-deco building, while a little to the south-east I could see Casa, which is more Armani than art deco, but beautiful in its own way.

The buildings yet to come in that area – Chaz, Five, Aura, several on Bay, Charles, or in Yorkville, will be further examples of the design excellence that has come to characterize the Toronto condo market.

Stephen Dupuis is President and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) and can be found on Twitter (twitter.com/bildgta), Facebook (facebook.com/bildgta), YouTube (youtube.com/bildgta) and BILD’s official online blog (bildblogs.ca).