Opinion: The High Cost of the View: How Toronto's Public Skyline Vanished
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
Before the CN Tower dominated the horizon, the city's heights were an accessible public experience. Now, most of those vistas are locked behind corporate doors.
For many of us, the CN Tower is the definitive way to experience Toronto from above. But as I look back at the city's architectural evolution, it becomes clear that our relationship with the skyline was once far more intimate and accessible. Long before the CN Tower's arrival, Toronto offered a diverse array of public observation decks that allowed residents to soak in the city's growth without a premium ticket.
According to reporting from BlogTO, the early 20th century saw the skyline as a shared resource. Commerce Court North, an Art Deco masterpiece opening in 1931, featured a 32nd-floor observation deck defined by imposing gargoyles. It was one of the city's most coveted destinations until the mid-1960s, when the rise of modern office towers in the Financial District began to obstruct its sweeping views. While the deck remains unchanged, it is now strictly off-limits to the public.
Other landmarks offered equally stunning perspectives. BlogTO notes that the Imperial Oil Building, which opened in 1957 at Avenue Road and St. Clair, utilized its position atop the former Lake Iroquois shoreline escarpment to provide unparalleled views. However, the proliferation of downtown bank towers in the 1960s created competition, leading to the deck's closure in the late 1960s. By the 2010s, the building was converted into private condominiums, permanently erasing any hope of public access.
As the city grew taller, so did the accessibility—until the CN Tower shifted the paradigm. Commerce Court West, designed by architect I.M. Pei and opened in 1972, allowed visitors to ride an elevator to the top for 50 cents, with views available as late as 10 p.m. For three short years, it was the city's tallest structure. But once the CN Tower opened, it stripped Commerce Court West of its title and its status as the city's highest observation deck. Visitors dwindled, and by 1977, the space was converted into commercial office space.
This pattern of privatization and corporate conversion repeated across the city. BlogTO reports that the TD Bank Tower, completed in 1967, once featured a popular 55th-floor observation deck with unobstructed views. Within six months of the CN Tower opening its own observation deck, crowds at the TD Centre plummeted. The observatory was shut down in April 1977 and transformed into office space.
Even our civic institutions retreated from the public. Old City Hall's 340-foot clock tower, the tallest structure in Canada from 1899 to 1917, once allowed the public to view Bay Street and the harbour via elevator, though that lift was decommissioned in the 1920s. Similarly, the east tower of the new City Hall, opened in 1967, had a 27th-floor deck that operated until 1979, when safety concerns and maintenance costs forced its closure. While this specific deck is occasionally open during Doors Open Toronto, it remains largely inaccessible.
Beyond the downtown core, the sense of public openness extended to transportation. BlogTO highlights the former Aeroquay One terminal at Pearson International Airport, where visitors could once park on top of the airport or use an in-terminal deck to watch jets. This modernist landmark was demolished in 2004, following security restrictions implemented after the September 11th attacks.
Today, the view of Toronto is largely a privatized commodity. Where we once had a variety of vantage points—from Art Deco gargoyles to civic clock towers—we are now left with a singular, commercialized peak. The skyline is still there, but the public's place within it has been largely replaced by corporate boardrooms and luxury condos.