James K.M. Cheng

Concord Pacific's Marinaside, 2002
Set on False Creek, this design established the 'Vancouverist' residential tower-on-podium typology. Marinaside has a residents-only raised garden at mid-block, framed by ring of townhouses, plus offices below. The well-proportioned architecture is unusually refined, influenced by the white-on-white aesthetic of Cheng's Harvard mentor Richard Meier.

Westbank's Residences on Georgia, 1998
Illustrating the cultural shorthand that describes the Vancouverist tower-on-podium typology as "Hong Kong towers on New York Brownstones," this project achieved its high density through provision of such public amenities as public art, conservation of a heritage house, and a lush but 'residents-only' park.

Westbank's Shaw Tower, 2003
Built amidst rising fears that downtown Vancouver was turning into a residential-only, high-end 'resort', this elegant and silvery skyscraper on the Burrard Inlet waterfront features a welcome 16 storeys of offices underneath its 24 floors of condos. It employs curtain wall - more expressive but more expensive than Vancouver's otherwise standard window-wall construction.

Concord Pacific's Spectrum Costco-Condo Complex, 2007
For rainy and grey Vancouver, Cheng's use of colour here is welcome, as is his imaginative design for a tough site and building programme - four very tall residential towers set on top of a big box retail store which lies between the concrete arms of a freeway, adjacent to two stadia.