Living Shangri-La
Vancouver's tallest city-proper tower hides a free sculpture garden and art display at street level.
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At 200.86 metres across 62 floors, this is the tallest building in Vancouver proper. The ground-level podium is what earns the detour: a curated public sculpture garden and a Vancouver Art Gallery display, both open to passersby without entering the tower. On the west end, a 1919 church was restored for $4.4 million as a condition of the development deal — a century-old building that survived beside the glass skyscraper because the deal required it.
What to look for
- The curated public sculpture garden in the podium complex
- The Vancouver Art Gallery public display inside the podium — no ticket needed
- The Coastal Church on the west end of the site, built in 1919 and restored for $4.4 million as part of the development agreement
Accessible from 1128 West Georgia Street or 1111 Alberni Street; the hotel floors transitioned from Shangri-La to Hyatt Vancouver Downtown Alberni in July 2025.
Living Shangri-La is one of 13 sights worth the detour in Vancouver, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Vancouver pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Vancouver
- BC PlaceA stadium that broke the same world record twice — first with the largest air-supported roof ever built, then with the largest cable-supported retractable roof.
- Rogers ArenaBuilt for C$160 million and opened in 1995, this is the rink where Vancouver's hockey soul lives — and where the city briefly renamed it Canada Hockey Place for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
- Stanley ParkA thousand acres of old-growth forest on a downtown peninsula — bigger than Central Park, as old as Vancouver itself.
- Pacific ColiseumThe rink where Vancouver first played NHL hockey — and where 2010 Olympic skaters competed on the same ice.
- Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports CentreCanada's first national hockey team was born on this ice in 1963 — and the Vancouver Canucks still practice here.
- Richmond Olympic OvalThe rink where Olympic speed skaters raced in 2010 is now a public arena where you can climb a wall, row a tank, or lace up hockey skates — all under one roof.