Toronto recently broke ground on its tallest mass timber residential building. The project at 230 Royal York Road is a nine-story development made almost entirely of prefabricated mass timber. Once the pieces arrive on-site, crews will have just 90 working days to get the structure up. Designed by LWPAC and built by the team at Intelligent City, the building is the first of its kind in the city: a mid-rise apartment complex constructed from engineered wood components that were built off-site using robotic machinery and AI.
Image sourced from Intelligent City
Mass timber construction: A faster way to build housing
Toronto’s housing crunch isn’t a secret. It’s one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, with the average detached home going for 1.44 million in 2025. This project aims to prove that prefabricated timber can scale and provide affordable housing in a market desperately needing quality housing fast.
Windmill Developments and Leader Lane Developments have been pushing for this kind of construction since 2017, with an eye on reducing costs and schedule pressure for mid-rise residential developments. With the city and the Canadian federal government planning to invest more in housing, many hope this project becomes a model for repeat builds.
Building a mid-rise condo usually takes 18 to 24 months, depending on the size. With mass timber construction methods, this building is expected to be assembled in less than three months. Instead of waiting for traditional framing or concrete cures, windows, insulation, and interior systems follow close behind the assembly. For developers, this process shortens the time from permit to occupancy, providing the potential to quickly use capital for new projects.
The construction process at 230 Royal York Road
The process to build Toronto’s tallest mass timber residential building is different that traditional methods as that The wood components come from Intelligent City, a prefabrication plant near Toronto where robotics and AI are now part of the standard production line. Automated machines cut and pre-assemble panels, columns, and beams before being shipped to the site. That includes pre-drilling holes, integrating duct runs, and ensuring all tolerances match precisely.
For crews on-site, the building process is simplified as they simply have to put the pieces together and secure the structure. The pieces are labeled, mapped, and ready to be slotted in. According to Intelligent City, this process makes their work safer and faster.
Is mass timber the future of mid-rise condos?
Mass timber is emerging as a compelling solution for mid-rise condominium construction in Toronto, driven by the city’s urgent need for sustainable and scalable housing. With approximately 682 mid-rise buildings (5–11 stories) in the development pipeline and only 28% completed, there’s a significant opportunity to adopt faster and greener construction methods. Mass timber offers considerable advantages:
- Carbon storage: Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. When turned into timber, that carbon stays locked in the wood for decades, helping reduce atmospheric CO₂.
- Lower emissions: Mass timber construction produces significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than concrete or steel production, which are highly energy-intensive.
- Renewable resource: Timber comes from trees, which can be replanted and regrown. Sustainable forestry practices help ensure long-term availability.
- Less construction waste: Prefabricated timber panels are cut to size off-site, which reduces on-site waste and speeds up construction.
- Efficiency: With more work done off-site, construction is cleaner, quieter, and faster.
The province of Ontario has already completed 151 mass timber projects, with more underway, signaling growing industry confidence. Furthermore, Toronto’s updated building codes now permit mass timber buildings up to 12 stories, paving the way for broader adoption in mid-rise developments. This is a positive sign for the younger generation hoping to get into the housing market in the future. With faster build times the supply of new condos could ease the sky high price growth that has made housing so unaffordable for many in Toronto.
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The project at 230 Royal York Road in Toronto is a vivid example of how mass timber and prefabrication technologies can truly impact the housing crisis. In a city ranked among the most expensive in the world for housing, reducing construction timelines from 18–24 months to less than three is a real breakthrough.
Key points to note
Speed and efficiency
Robotics and AI in component production allow for a dramatic reduction in the construction cycle. For a city where housing demand grows faster than supply, this could become a turning point.
Environmental sustainability
Timber panels sequester carbon, reduce emissions compared to concrete and steel, and are manufactured with minimal waste. In this way, Toronto is not only addressing affordability but also taking a step toward decarbonizing the construction industry.
Regulatory changes
New building codes allowing up to 12 stories for mass timber structures open an entire market segment for mid-rise condominiums. This means that in the coming years, such projects will become the norm rather than the exception.
Social impact
Rapid scaling of affordable condominiums could help cool a market where younger generations have been almost entirely pushed out of homeownership. This represents not just an architectural shift but also a social revolution.
Challenges
Cost: It is still unclear how much the price per square meter can realistically be reduced for end buyers.
Forest resources: It is crucial that the growth in construction volumes is supported by certified sustainable forestry practices.
Market acceptance: Not all consumers yet trust the durability and safety of mass timber compared to concrete.
Conclusion
Toronto demonstrates that mass timber is not only about ecology but also about solving systemic urban challenges. If the Intelligent City project proves successful, we may witness such buildings becoming the standard for megacities seeking balance between speed, affordability, and sustainability.