Hybrid Towers Combining Offices with Residences

The lower story at First Light consists of continuous retail spaces at ground level, topped by six floors of highly desirable large floorplate offices. This provides significant work spaces ideally perched between South Lake Union and downtown, providing a platform for the view-oriented residential homes above. Cheng pioneered this combination at the waterfront Shaw Tower in Vancouver, which has 11 floors of offices (including the headquarters of Westbank and Canada’s largest private company, the Pattison Group), above the offices are 26 floors of condos, having a different shape of floorplan to maximize views to the harbor and mountains. Similarly, First Light has a podium of six floors of workspace, enveloped by John Hogan’s veil, below 36 floors of residential homes.

Shaw Tower, Vancouver, Canada