CREDIT: The Province It will take four years to build, but when it is finished the Shangri-La will be the city’s first building taller than 600 feet.

Vancouver‘s cathedrals in the sky are getting a new neighbour to look up to.

The Living Shangri-La on the southwest corner of Georgia and Thurlow will become the city’s tallest building when it’s completed in four years.

At 642 feet (196 metres) and 60 storeys, it will become the first skyscraper in Vancouver to pierce the 600-foot barrier.

At 685,000 square feet, it will also be the city’s biggest building.

Vancouver‘s current tallest building is the Wall Centre, at 491 feet (150 metres).

Under a plan approved yesterday by the city’s development permit board, the Living Shangri-La’s first 15 floors will have 120 deluxe hotel rooms operated by the five-star Shangri-La Hotel chain from Southeast Asia.

On floors 16 to 42, one- and two-bedroom live-work condos start at $400,000 and peak at $1 million.

There will be 63 private units on floors 43 to 59. The penthouse on the 60th floor will be valued at $13 million.

The $250-million tower will also boast the tallest rooftop garden in Vancouver — for private use only — and a large public sculpture garden on the ground floor.

Project developer Ian Gillespie said Vancouver is a world-class city in need of a world-class skyline.

“Vancouver has this incredible natural setting,” he said yesterday. “Vancouver is on the map. But architecturally, Vancouver is not on the map.”

Gillespie, 41, said the Living Shangri-La project will be a world-class landmark.

“It really starts to break out of the mould,” he said.

Gillespie doesn’t predict radical changes to the city’s skyline in the next decade.

“It’s one thing to have a site designated for a tall building. But it’s another thing altogether to actually get it developed. The change is going to be quite gradual.”

Project architect Dawn Guspie said the building will be triangular in shape, allowing it to fit in with city “view cones” of the North Shore mountains.

“We wanted to give it a timeless look,” she said. “It looks rectangular as you look at it from Georgia and Thurlow. It becomes much more animated and is green in concept as it faces the southwest.”

The city gets $16.5 million in benefits from the developers for allowing the building to reach such a height.

In addition to the art garden, the developers have pledged to plant 57,000 trees around B.C., restore a 1913 church next door and help fund social housing.

Jonathan Barrett, the city’s development planner, said the skyline height used to be fixed at 450 feet, but it rose to 600 feet after an intense debate in the late 1990s.

“It was trying to create a shape to the skyline,” he said. “The idea was to create more of a dome . . . that allowed for taller buildings at the centre.”

The city pegged five sites where the giant buildings could be located, along Georgia, Burrard and Granville.

“I don’t think it will be the norm,” said Barrett. “For now, we’re not going to get a lot of 600-foot buildings. Three or four would be my guess.”

The city also recently approved a 50-storey hotel tower next to the Hotel Georgia on Howe.

CATHEDRALS IN THE SKY

– Living Shangri-La: Georgia and Thurlow. 642 feet (196 metres). Due for completion in 2008.

– Crystal Tower: Georgia and Howe. 506 feet (154 metres). Completion in 2008.

– Wall Centre: Burrard and Nelson. 491 feet (150 metres). Currently the city’s tallest building.

– Shaw Tower: Coal Harbour. 489 feet (149 metres). Completion this fall. It will become the city’s tallest structure, but the Wall Centre sits on downtown’s highest point.

– Scotia Bank Tower: Georgia and Seymour. 452 feet (138 metres). Was the city’s tallest for many years.

– Bentall 4: Burrard and Dunsmuir. 454 feet (138 metres). Built to the limit of the city’s previous height ceiling.

– The world’s tallest building is in Taipei, Taiwan, reaching 1,670 feet (509 metres). It is already being surpassed by a 2,000-foot (610-metre) building in Dubai, U.A.E.

– The Freedom Tower, located on the former World Trade Centre site at Ground Zero in New York, will be 1,776 feet (541 metres) tall.

Ran with fact box “Cathedrals in the sky”, which has been appended to the story.

© The Vancouver Province 2004