Shangri-La Vancouver

NDY’s previous successful projects and experience in high-rise residential and hotel markets, were key factors in Westbank Group’s decision to engage NDY to design the luxury hotel Shangri-La in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC).

The high rise building’s first half is made up of a five star hotel, whilst the top half is home to luxury residential units. The 62 storey Shangri-La is currently the tallest building in BC and in addition to the hotel and residential spaces, there is also a grocery, two restaurants and a high end retail rental unit in the building including eight levels of underground car park.

During the design phase of the project, a primary challenge was the height of the building. The vertical column pressure on the hydraulic systems tended to increase, which caused the team divide the building into two different mechanical sections; this is a unique scenario. After completion of construction, NDY continued to provide support to the owner/building operators by designing tenant fitouts and support operation and maintenance of the base building.

Another unique aspect of the project was the series of installed boreholes called a ground condenser located underneath the building, essentially for thermal storage. The ground source heat pump loop sends the heat into the ground during summer, which can be reused during winter for space heating and domestic hot water heating. The ground condenser is an innovative alternative to solar panels; solar panels are not effective in Vancouver due to the weather.

Aside from NDY, the visionaries behind the project are Westbank as the developer as well as James K.M. Cheng Architects who assisted in making this project possible. NDY performed mechanical, plumbing, sustainability and energy modeling for the project. There is a significant amount of carbon reduction and greenhouse gas reduction as the building can store thermal energy from cooling to heating seasons, whilst also saving on energy costs.