Inside Vancouver
The Master of Shangri-La
By Michael Harris published Jan 1, 2009
Additional Images click to enlarge
The architect James Cheng is designing a high-rise paradise by keeping his buildings grounded
The penthouse at Shangri-la has an airplane's view of the city. Everything below you is a toy, an intricate model. Wreathing the 62nd storey of Vancouver's tallest building, there are private outdoor swimming pools, and columnar hornbeams thin as poplars stand sentry. A passing construction worker heaves drywall and notes that the trees are turning a sour brown. "I think they went into shock or something."
The architect, James Cheng, believes they'll eventually thrive. Crossing the unfinished suite in his hard hat and steel-toed boots, Cheng can see the States, the ocean, the Lions, and the wreck of a lot where the Ritz-Carlton is meant to be erected on the opposite bank of Georgia Street. (It will be several stories shorter than Shangri-La, he notes.)
Cheng, 61, is a kindly but driven man. He has brushes of grey at his temples; his glasses tint themselves in the sunlight that pours through the penthouse windows; the letters J.C. are embroidered on the cuff of his dress shirt. When excited he speaks in rushes, sentences overlapping. There's an urgency about him, and to substantial effect: he has contributed 31 high-rises to the downtown peninsula alone, making him an architect of the entire urban experience. Those buildings, combined, house 868 floors of condos and offices, but only their first floors obsess him. "The tower is the easy part," he says. "What's hard is where the tower touches the ground. Where it meets all the people."
Nowadays, almost every planner and architect would agree. Certainly Andrés Duany does, pacing at ground level in his Miami office. Duany is a high priest of North American architecture and a leader of the New Urbanism movement; he talks with a rock star's brazenness and likes to make hard pronouncements. Today's target is Vancouver. "The look of your city from a distance and high up is the best of any city in the second half of the 20th century. But walking around on Vancouver's streets, you'd be hard-pressed to think you're even in the top 30."
