Mixed-Use Mid-Rise - Architecture and Interior Design
Toronto, Canada | Under Construction

Developer: North Drive
Visualization: Adhoc Studio
Architect of Record: Icke Brochu Architects
Structural: Jablonsky, Ast and Partners

BILD Awards, Project of the Year - Mid/High-rise, 2025
BILD Awards, Best Suite Design - Large, 2025

One Roxborough West is a contextually responsive new building located in Summerhill, at the confluence of tree-lined residential neighbourhoods and an iconic high street. Reflect Architecture, in partnership with North Drive Developments, conceived the project in all aspects—its architecture, interior design, visual identity, and branding—with an approach rooted in the unique qualities of the site and its context.

The duality of high street and home is a concept that underpins the project and recurs as a formal and material design strategy. The building façade responds contextually to its surroundings; a sleek, tidy envelope addresses the urban interface with Yonge Street. A two-storey podium reinforces the existing, well-defined street wall and small-scale retail character of the high street. Narrow retail bays are framed in warm, textured red brick creating a consistent tactile and visual language, familiar to the neighbourhood shops that line the Summerhill corridor.

The tower is subdivided in two-storey segments with prominent horizontal bands to reduce its apparent scale. As the façade turns to address the tree-lined, low-rise neighbourhood to the west, depth and layering are introduced with planted and perforated screening elements that create a natural buffer and interplay between the existing tree canopy and new vertical gardens. A diverse material palette balances honest and contemporary influences establishing contrasting pairings that emphasize texture and scale. Contextual red brick along Yonge Street is juxtaposed with a more restrained, contemporary masonry on the Roxborough Street frontage that marks the transition from high street retail to neighbourhood. Similarly, the smooth, metallic finish that defines the two storey bands is offset by perforated screen panels that dissolve with the introduction of deciduous planting as the façade depth transitions to the west.

Accessible from a discreet Roxborough Street lobby entrance, a handful of residences occupy the upper levels of the building, balancing the energy of Yonge Street with the quieter character of the residential neighbourhood to the west.