Shangri-La

Shangri-La has opened its sixtieth hotel worldwide – and its first in North America – with the January launch of the Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver. 


The hotel occupies the first 15 floors of the new 61-storey ‘Living Shangri-La’ building, designed by James KM Cheng Architects. The development is a multi-purpose complex built to LEED Silver building standards, incorporating residential, retail, restaurants and an outdoor public art space curated by the Vancouver Art Gallery.


The hotel’s 119 guestrooms are an average 52m2 – among the largest in Canada. Other features include a signature CHI spa, the Jean-Georges Vongerichten-fronted Market restaurant and intimate meeting spaces including the first private hotel screening room in Vancouver. Luxury finishings include d’Porthault linens in each guestroom, B&B Italia furniture in rooms and public spaces, Dedon outdoor furniture on guestroom balconies, crystal chandeliers commissioned from Italy, and art chosen to suit each space.


The hotel’s interiors integrate British Columbia’s west coast style and Shangri-La’s Asian heritage. 


Described as a ‘next generation hotel’,  a calming sensory experience using light and sound will welcome guests. Candlelight flickers along a back wall and natural light streams into a small bamboo garden while wind chimes, crickets, and rustling grass provide soft background sounds. The traditional front desk has been eliminated with each guest met individually and escorted to their room for private in-room check-in. Purpose-built for Shangri-La, the hotel’s technology includes innovative, intuitive elements such as proximity cards for guestroom access and a single remote control for the entire in-room entertainment system, which includes a 46” flatscreen television.   


Vancouver-based Peterson Investment Group and Westbank Projects Corp. are joint developers for the project. They are also developing a further Shangri-La in Toronto, due to open in 2012.
www.shangri-la.com