Shangri Las Vancouver Classy Skyline Peak

A new luxury tower designed by James KM Cheng Architects, the first to breach the height limits in the Canadian city of Vancouver, is finally starting to rise above ground.Called Living Shangri-La and located at 1120 West Georgia Street, the mixed use tower containing a new Shangri-La hotel on the first 15 floors with condos taking up the rest of the tower, will be 197 metres and 61 have levels in total. There will be public amenities including a grocery and an art gallery on the ground level of the scheme plus planning gain that sees the nearby Coastal Church fully restored by the developer.One highlight of the scheme includes a stunning penthouse suite for a very rich and lucky buyer selling for $13 million CDN. With 630 square metres of floor-space, your very own private roof garden almost 200 metres up and a swimming pool there is proof that a hefty bank balance can put you almost on top of the world.The level of accommodation has proven hugely popular to investors with 75% selling out in the first ten days. If you fancy buying one you'll have to hurry as there are now a mere five apartments left to buy at about $3.2 million CDN each.Construction started with a groundbreaking ceremony in March 2005 but the size of the foundations have seen the project take over a year to even start to rise above the ground - it achieved this in July 2006. The tower is now expected to grow at approximately a floor a week leading to a topping out in August 2007.Vancouver has had strict height limits since tower building started there restricting buildings to no more than 150 metres. The geographical location of it, not unlike Hong Kong in that it is sandwiched between a bay and mountains, has lead the local planning authorities to regulate to protect this setting.The end result has been an attractive but densely developed waterfront that suffers from numerous developers having built up to approximately the same height creating a skyline with few pinnacles, although preserving the stunning backdrop that is only now being breached by the Living Shangri-La.