Following the relatively quick sales successes of M City’s first two towers, M1 and M2, today Rogers Real Estate Development, Mayor Bonnie Crombie and the M City team unveiled plans for a third tower along the western edge of Mississauga’s emerging downtown. Designed by Canadian firm IBI Group, M3 will reach a height of 81 stories (inclusive of four mechanical levels), making it the tallest tower in Mississauga by a significant margin, and one of the tallest buildings in the GTA.
M3’s unveiling comes only a few short months after construction began on the more than 1,570 units that comprise M City’s first two phases. Rogers Real Estate Development Limited, a private holding company owned by the Rogers family, enlisted leading Canadian developer Urban Capital Property Group to help bring their vision of downtown Mississauga to life. The 8-tower, 15-acre, 4.3 million sq. ft. master-planned community was designed by renowned urban designers Cooper Robertson of New York, to reflect the city’s own vision for a new downtown, and introduces two acres of public parkland onto the site.
“We are working to build a complete, well-planned city. Today is another important milestone as we shape our City’s growing and thriving downtown core. Once complete, M City will define the western edge of downtown Mississauga and will perfectly compliment the Absolute Towers to the east. These significant and ongoing building investments help strengthen our City’s tax base which allows Council to fund important resident priorities we all rely on including libraries, community centres and public transit,” said Mayor Crombie.
M3’s slender design features a subtle twist at the lower and upper parts of the tower and a dramatic sloped crown at the top. The design is rooted in the context of Mississauga’s downtown and was the result of a design competition held by Rogers Real Estate Development Limited and Urban Capital, which received proposals from several of the country’s top architecture firms.
“M3 preserves the spirit of movement and twists that made the M City 1 and 2 buildings so striking. It was important for our design to embody this artful dynamism that has become so representative of Mississauga, but with a subtle, refined application,” says lead architect Mansoor Kazerouni, Global Director of Buildings at IBI Group. “Mississauga has a very unique layout and acts almost as a city with two grids. You have due North and South forming one grid and a streetscape that runs diagonal to those directions. Our twist is meant to speak directly to both compositions. The result is a design that is completely unique to the site and emblematic of the ambitions of M City.”
The tower’s verticality is enhanced by a dynamic façade defined by saw tooth balconies that create a black and white diagonal pattern up the building, providing scale, texture and materiality. “The tower form is crowned by a sloped and stepped top that complements the diagonal balcony pattern and creates incredible terrace units, giving residents an opportunity to experience the city like never before,” says Kazerouni.