The rapid condo-fication of midtown Toronto is transforming neighbourhood side streets into high-density corridors, and few of these roads have witnessed as much change in the last decade as Roehampton Avenue, just north of the Yonge-Eglinton intersection.

The latest development application proposed in the neighbourhood's unprecedented vertical expansion calls for a gargantuan 50-storey condo tower to rise from 77 Roehampton Avenue, located midway between Yonge Street and Redpath Avenue.

The subject site is currently home to an 11-storey rental building containing 81 units, which would be demolished to make way for the enormous new edifice.

Proposed by developers Reserve and Westdale, the submission is an update to a 2022 plan, incorporating vast revisions to its design and replacing the blocky form proposed last year with a striking new look from architects Arcadis IBI Group.

The revised proposal submitted in April 2023 calls for a podium design with rounded edges and a dramatic cutaway at its base, topped by a glass tower partially wrapped in a screen of red brick finishes.

Residential space accounts for the majority of the proposal, occupying 37,857 square metres of the total 37,897 square-metre floor area.

This includes 624 condominium units, planned in a breakdown of 83 studios, 339 one-bedrooms, 137 two-bedrooms, and 65 three-bedroom units. Another 81 rental units are proposed to replace the existing units on site that would be lost to demolition.

The remaining 130 square metres of floor area would house new retail space at the base of the development.

Renderings of this ground-floor retail space depict a new cafe featuring outdoor dining space sheltered by the cutaway at the tower base.

However, there are many moving parts to a development of this magnitude, some of which can't be gleaned from glossy, high-definition renderings.

One of these is the proposed elevator count, with just four elevators planned to serve the entire tower, an issue responsible for overcrowded elevator lobbies in many modern Toronto developments.