Living Shangri-La

Features a curated public sculpture garden.

This is Vancouver's tallest building.

Its many retail uses include a large grocery store.

Urban Design Panel, 5/26/04: Project is striving to obtain LEED certification with the goal of silver.

Floor space ratio was increased from 9.0 to 12.81.

Project zoning was approved by City Council on December 10, 2003.

Level 4 and 13 do not exist.

Crews began boarding-up the block in July 2004 turning Thurlow & Georgia into 'preview corner'.

Largest building in the city after Park Place.

September 2004: 75% of condominiums were sold within 10 days after first offering for sale.

Apartments available for purchase as of 9/24/04: 5 units on floors 16-42, 30 units on floors 43-60.

Sidewalk widths: Thurlow St. - 15 ft., Alberni St. - 20 ft., West Georgia St. - 25 ft.

Level 61 is a residential roof garden penthouse of 630 square metres with a swimming pool and 360-degree view, selling at $13 million.

The hotel guestrooms, averaging 550 square feet, are among the largest in Canada.

Penthouse listed at $7.4 million (June 2005).

October 2005 saw the completion of the core foundation footing, a 100-foot by 100-foot by 12-foot deep block of steel-reinforced concrete.

July 2006: building rose above ground for the first time.

Plans included the restoration of the heritage Coastal Church at 1160 West Georgia Street, at the extreme west end of the project's full city block.

The project provided 3.1 million man-hours of employment, saw 15,000 truckloads of earth excavated, required 51,000 cubic metres of concrete, and 7,000 tons of reinforcing steel.

Shangri-La developers contributed $4.4 million to the revitalization of the rare Colonial Revival style Coastal Church built in 1919.

During the height of construction activity 1,000 workers were on site constructing 1 floor per week.

A 119-room hotel, including restaurants and spa, takes up the first 15 floors. General live-work homes (227 units) are on floors 16 to 42 and private access residential units on floors 43-59 (63 units) with three penthouses on floor 61.

The hotel's 6,500-square-foot CHI spa, inspired by Asian healing philosophies, is the largest in the city and first of its kind in North America.

March 8, 2007: construction reached about 20% of the tower's overall height as the 15th floor was in the process of being poured.

The hotel opened January 24, 2009 so that hotel guests were not disturbed by tenants moving in to the 216 condos above.

This is the city's heaviest structure and required an excavation to a depth of 85 feet below grade and the removal of 80,000 cubic metres of spoil.

June 15, 2007: cladding had extended above the 19th floor as the 30th floor was being poured.

Became the tallest building in Vancouver on October 2, 2007 when construction surpassed 491 feet above grade, replacing One Wall Centre.

The tower crane was dismantled and lowered to the ground during the weekend of July 12-13, 2008.

The construction crane was fitted with lights on November 13, 2007 becoming the highest illuminated crane ever in the city's skyline. When topped out, the illuminated crane stood over 700 feet above the streets.