FEATURES EVENTS
October 15, 2025 752
CTBUH/CVU Tours: A rare visit up at TD Terrace at 160 Front West
Another tour on the fourth day of the recent Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat/Council on Vertical Urbanism conference in Toronto was to TD Terrace at 160 Front West. The Cadillac Fairview project opened last year and is known for its unique undulating and rounded design by AS + GG Architecture with B+H Architects as Architect of Record, as well as its nighttime green and white LED lighting, extending Toronto's Financial Core one block to the west.
TD Terrace at 160 Front West illuminated at night, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor Skycandy
Anyone who has walked the blocks around the tower on a clear day and looked up at the TD Terrace will have noticed that the area at the top of the tower is transparent, like a greenhouse, even though it has no palm trees, banana trees, or any vegetation. There are interchangeable signs on the crown of the building, usually bearing the TD Bank logo for the largest tenant on each side (west and south sides at top at night, north side at bottom during day). We're going up there soon…
Looking southeast toward TD Terrace at 160 Front West, rising behind Roy Thomson Hall, image by Craig White
…but let's start in the lobby, where conference attendees gathered to begin the tour. Led by Nathan Diestelkamp of AS + GG, the group learned about the attention to detail applied throughout the project that was key to attracting the project's anchor tenants, TD and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan. The two companies have rented 100% of the office space in the building. The only other tenant has taken up two commercial spaces on the ground floor in the podium; Italian restaurant Oretta has been operating a cafe across the lobby for some time, while the 8,000-square-foot restaurant facing Simcoe Street just opened this week.
In the lobby of TD Terrace, 160 Front West, image by Craig White
In the lobby, Diestelkamp explained such details on the marble walls, which mirror the angle of the building's windows, only vertically in the lobby, with alternating honed or polished stripes to also mimic the reflectivity of the exterior. The group then moved to a meeting room on the 18th floor, where representatives from several companies involved in the design of parts of the building were also introduced, before a presentation on the design and construction of the building. The unique tilt of the windows was further explained here, with the team not only wanting a distinctive look, but through a design that has proven to be thermally more efficient, with the windows angled away from the sun in summer, helping to reduce the need for air conditioning.
The visit above was preceded by a presentation on the creation of the building, image by Craig White
While the presentation touched on several other aspects of the building's design, the trip upstairs was the highlight of the visit. The room corresponding to the 49th floor is only accessible on foot, elevators only reach the 47th floor. When you get up there, you find yourself in what feels like a huge greenhouse and all you miss is the green. In the middle of the room, but another 23 feet (7.1 m) higher, is the building maintenance unit when not in use, on the equivalent of the 50th floor. A pair of sliding glass windows can be closed 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 the building's maintenance staff say has remained fairly consistent over the past few months.
Looking west through the roof enclosure, image by Craig White
An intermediate double-height floor houses the building's mechanical systems, from which HVAC ducts extend and occupy much of the west side of this enclosure. The passage between a double set of ducts allows access from the south side of the closure to the north side.
HVAC ducting within the roof enclosure, image by Craig White
The enclosure is just over 28 meters high at its peak on the west side of the building and is a truly impressive space, even if it is not normally accessible to humans. While there are other opportunities in Toronto for people to fly high in the sky and enjoy great views, in this case it feels like a missed opportunity since such an amazing space is off-limits 99.9% of the time. Fire regulations prevent elevators from reaching this level because it is outdoors.
Looking southwest through the enclosure, image by Craig White
Here is a picture of the BMU poking through the roof, taken generally in the same southwest direction as the inside picture above. The BMU here has the ability to move horizontally – rock – as well as rise vertically and make diagonal movements, allowing it to reach over all four walls, suspend a platform or stage from its arms and allow for any maintenance, be it just cleaning the windows (which they could have used on this visit) or replacing external components of the building.
The building maintenance unit extends across the sloped roof of TD Terrace, image by hawc, UrbanToronto Forum contributor
All images here in the enclosure (and also in the boardroom and lobby) were taken with a wide angle lens. Although the choice of lens conveys as much of the sense of space into the frame as possible, it also creates some strange angles. Looking north, we see the back of one of the four interchangeable LED signs below.
Looking north through the fencing to the back of one of the changeable message signs, image by Craig White
So what are the prospects? Just as fantastic as the room itself. If you walk directly under the LED sign seen above, the view through the north side windows offers an impressive view over the central area of ​​the city.
The view looking north from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White
In the west, the CN Tower is of course a real eye-catcher, especially since it eclipsed the sun quite well on this particular visit. Although most of the direct sunlight was blocked out that day, reflections on the glass up here were hard to avoid with the camera.
The view of the CN Tower looking west from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White
A zoom shot to the west, however, managed to avoid the glare and reveal nearby towers such as 300 Front, The Well and several in Concord CityPlace, while across that bay Etobicoke's Humber Bay Shores towers stood dark, with remnants of downtown Mississauga's more faded towers peeking out behind them over the distant horizon.
The view looking west from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White
The view to the south below is the last one to enjoy from the enclosure: it offers breathtaking views across the Southcore area to Toronto Harbour, the islands and Lake Ontario beyond. We're told that the south-facing desks on the hotel-style office floors below are usually occupied first, with this view being the most popular. There is no view directly east from the enclosure, as the east side is a separate room two floors below and is scheduled to open in March. This space, surrounded by a similar glass-sealed structure but not open to the outside air, is intended to be used as an event space for the building's tenants. We hope to bring you a report on this in 2026!
The view looking south from the top of TD Terrace, image by Craig White
Following the trip upstairs, the group spent time both on the ground floor and underground to introduce the international group of visitors to Toronto's PATH system, to which the building is connected via Simcoe Place to the west.
UrbanToronto will continue to monitor the progress of this development, but in the meantime you can learn more in our database file linked below. If you'd like, you can join the discussion in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the designated area on this page.
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