Great Gulf broke ground Tuesday on Monde, the inaugural condo to launch in East Bayfront and renowned architect Moshe Safdie’s first residential building in Canada since Habitat ’67 in Montreal. The 44-storey Monde, on Queens Quay next to Sherbourne Common, will be a “centrepiece” of Waterfront Toronto's revitalization, said Great Gulf residential president Christopher Wein, snapped second from left turning dirt with high-rise VP Alan Vihant, deputy mayor Pam McConnell, Moshe, and Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell.

Christopher, seen here with Alan, tells Bisnow that Monde—located by Corus Quay, George Brown College and Sugar Beach—will be “a shining example of what can be done on the waterfront and how we can welcome the new Toronto and what we see as the future of Toronto.” The development will include more than 500 condos and ground-level retail. East Bayfront, one of the first neighbourhoods built in the waterfront renewal, will be home to millions of square feet of employment space—including an innovation centre and arts hub—and 6,000 residential units.

Here’s glassy Monde, with perpendicular balconies that jut from the facade. Moshe, designer of Terminal 1 at Pearson International Airport, said it was “particularly enjoyable” to work within Waterfront Toronto’s “powerful urban design plan," which considers the public realm, the relationship of buildings to each other, and “how the place becomes a district beyond individual buildings.” Architects often work without guidance from a master plan, he noted, “so we’re delighted that this becomes a contribution to a greater picture of what the East Bayfront will become.”