Another of the tours on Day 4 of the recent Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat/Council on Vertical Urbanism Conference in Toronto was of TD Terrace at 160 Front West. Known for its uniquely crimped and rounded design by AS + GG Architecture with B+H Architects as Architect of Record, and for its nighttime LED green and white lighting, the Cadillac Fairview project opened last year, extending Toronto’s Financial Core another block to the west.

TD Terrace at 160 Front West lit up by night, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor skycandy

For anyone who has walked the blocks around the tower on a clear day, and looked up at TD Terrace, they will have noticed that the area at the top of the tower is see-through, like a greenhouse, although not boasting palm or banana trees or any vegetation at all. The building’s crown does boast changeable message signs, normally sporting the TD Bank logo for its largest tenant, one on each side (west and south sides seen above at night, and the north side seen below during the day). We’ll go up there soon…

Looking southeast to TD Terrace at 160 Front West, rising behind Roy Thomson Hall, image by Craig White

…but let’s start in the lobby where conference participants gathered to start the tour. Led by Nathan Diestelkamp of AS + GG, the group learned of the attention to detail paid across the project that was key to landing the projects anchor tenants, TD and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. The two firms have leased 100% of the office space in the building. The only other tennant has taken two ground floor commercial spaces in the podium; Italian restaurant Oretta has been operating a cafe facing the lobby for some time now, while their 8,000 sq ft Simcoe Street-facing restaurant just opened this week.

Within the lobby of TD Terrace at 160 Front West, image by Craig White

In the lobby, Diestelkamp expounded upon such details at the marble walls that mirror the angling of the building’s windows, only vertically in the lobby, with alternating strips either honed or polished to mimic the reflectivity of the exterior as well. The group then headed to a boardroom on the 18th floor where representatives of several of the firms that help design portions of the building were also introduced before a presentation on the building’s design and construction was played. The unique angling of the windows was further explained here, with the team not wanting merely a signature look, by a design that has proven to be more thermally efficient as the windows angle away from the sun during the summer, helping to reduce air conditioning needs.

A presentation about the creation of the building preceded the visit to the top, image by Craig White

While several more aspects of the building’s design were touched on in the presentation, it was the trip to the top that was the highlight of the visit. The space, on the equivalent of the 49th floor, can only be reached on foot: elevators only go as far as the 47th storey. When one arrives up there, one finds themself in a what feels like a giant greenhouse, just missing the green. In the middle of the space but up another 7.1m, is where the Building Maintenance Unit rests when not in use, on the equivalent of the 50th floor. A pair of sliding glass panels can be drawn shut to complete the enclosure of this space, but as you can see below, the area above the BMU was open to the sky, a condition that building maintenance staff told us has been fairly constant over the last several months.

Looking west through the rooftop enclosure, image by Craig White

A double-height intervening floor houses mechanical systems for the building, with HVAC ducting extending from it and taking up much of the west side of this enclosure. Walking between a double set of ducts allows access from the south side of the closure to the north side.

HVAC ducting within the rooftop enclosure, image by Craig White

The enclosure is just over 28 metres tall at its peak along the west side of the building, making for a truly impressive space, even if it’s one that will not normally be experienced by people. While Toronto has other opportunities for people to head high into the sky for great views, it strikes me as a missed opportunity in this case, with such a fantastic space off limits 99.9% of the time. Fire code prevents elevators from accessing this level because of its open air nature.

Looking southwest through the enclosure, image by Craig White

Here’s an image of the BMU rising through the roof, taken in generally the same southwest direction as the image from inside, above. The BMU here has the ability to move hoizontally — to luff — as well as rise vertically, combing for diagonal movements so that it can reach out over all four walls, suspending a platform or stage from its arms, allowing any maintenance, whether simply cleaning the windows (which they could have used as of this visit) or replacing any exterior components of the building.

The building maintenance unit extending above TD Terrace’s sloped roof, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor hawc

All the images within the enclosure here (and in the boardroom and lobby too) were taken with a wide-angle lens. That choice of lens does get as much of the space’s feel as possible into the frame, but does mean there are some odd angles as a result. Looking north, below, we see the back of one of the four changeable LED message signs.

Looking north through the enclosure to the back of one of the changeable message signs, image by Craig White

So, what are the views like? Just as fantastic as the space itself. Heading to just under the LED sign seen above, the view through the north side windows gives one a commanding view across the city’s central area.

The view north from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White

To the west, the CN Tower makes quite the statement, of course, especially as it rather well eclipsed the sun on this particular visit. Despite blocking out most direct solar rays that day, reflections on the glass up here were hard to avoid with the camera.

The CN Tower view west from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White

A zoom shot to the west, however, was able to avoid the glare while showcasing nearby towers like at 300 Front, The Well, and several in Concord CityPlace, while Etobicoke’s Humber Bay Shores towers stood dark on the other side of that bay, with slivers of the more faded towers of Mississauga City Centre poking out behind them, above the distant horizon.

The view west from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White

The view to the south, below, is the remaining one of those that can be seen from the enclosure: providing amazing vistas across the Southcore area to Toronto Harbour, the islands, and Lake Ontario beyond. We were told that the south-facing desks in the hotelling-style office floors below normally fill up first, this view being the most popular. There are no views directly east fom the enclosure, as the east side is a separate space, two floors lower, that is due to open in March. That space, enclosed in a similar glass-sealed superstructure, but not open to the outside air, is intended to be used as an event space for building tenants. We hope to bring you a report on it in 2026!

The view south from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White

Following the trip up top, the group spent time at ground level as well, and underground too, introducing the international group of visitors to Toronto’s PATH system, which the building connects to via Simcoe Place to the west.

UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you’d like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.

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UrbanToronto’s research and data service, UTPro, provides comprehensive data on construction projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe—from proposal through to completion. Other services include Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.