M City Master Plan
Project Stats
- Location
Mississauga, Ontario
- Size
16 acres, 4.3 million SF
- Role
Master Planner
- Market
- Expertise
Transforming a superblock with future-proofed urban design
The M City master plan and concept design were developed to launch a planned community with iconic architecture and more than two acres of public park in Mississauga, Ontario. The city, along with developers, sought a future-proof design for the $1.5 billion real estate investment. Located in downtown Mississauga, a city of about 700,000 people bordering Toronto, the new M City development creates 4.3 million square feet of mixed-use buildings on a 16-acre superblock located at its western gateway. The high density development on the site supports the long-term urbanization of Mississauga, which is enhanced by the planned light-rail line serving the core of the city.
The master plan includes open spaces and four new streets, creating a pedestrian-friendly network of streets and parks. Architecturally iconic towers atop base buildings front the busy Burnhamthorpe Road on the north side of the site, creating a counterpoint to the Absolute Towers on the eastern end of downtown. Internal open spaces extend a ribbon of parklands — the Mary Fix Creek Greenway — through the eastern portion of the site, adding pedestrian-scaled connections to adjacent neighborhoods.
Years in the making
The first phase buildings have been under construction for almost a decade, since the team began advising on planning and design, a role that continues as the project progresses. M City serves as a catalyst for the continued evolution of Mississauga’s downtown. Bringing the community more than two acres of new parkland is a part of the development’s legacy and a key aspect of the 15-acre initiative that also supports the community by extending existing city streets on a unique, angular plane. The result creates a fine-grained network of blocks, enabling a pedestrian-friendly environment of primarily two-way roads with on-street parking, generous sidewalks and residential frontages.
Recognizable and repeatable
The M City project — inspired by Mississauga’s own Downtown21 Master Plan — won a number of regional and national awards for architecture and urban planning, including the local urban design awards given by the city, as well as an international Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats Award of Excellence for best tall building.
Today, the development is seen as a valuable case study for creators of other greenfield urban developments around the world. With an identifiable eastern gateway formed by the Absolute Towers as well as world-class public spaces in the area like Celebration Square, City Hall and the Living Arts Centre, M City illuminates the opportunity of a new large-scale development to define a completely new area at the edge of an established downtown.
This project was completed by Cooper Robertson prior to its acquisition by Corgan in November 2025.
