The Hive – 2150 Keith Drive
An innovative and iconic 10-storey mass timber office building
Office & Workplace
The Hive is a 10-storey office building located at 2150 Keith Drive in Vancouver’s False Creek Flats. Designed as a landmark for sustainable and innovative development, it is the tallest timber seismic-force-resisting building in North America. The project also targets LEED® Gold certification and aligns with the AIA 2030 Challenge for carbon-neutral buildings.
With nine storeys in mass timber rising from a concrete base, the building’s distinctive honeycomb-shaped exoskeleton serves as a perimeter-braced structural system. This approach frees interior floor plates while creating a bold architectural identity that responds to the site’s constraints and enhances the building’s presence at both neighbourhood and city scales. The design also acknowledges its cultural context, maintaining a respectful relationship with an iconic artwork, the nearby East Van Cross.
In the event of an earthquake, The Hive is designed to move with the seismic forces and recentre itself using advanced seismic connections and a hybrid system of glulam braces and CLT shear walls.
Sustainability is central to the project, with energy and emissions performance significantly below typical benchmarks. Locally sourced mass timber further reduces embodied carbon while supporting regional industry.
With generous outdoor spaces, biophilic interiors, and an all-electric design, The Hive offers a healthy, low-carbon workplace that reflects its owner’s commitment to sustainability and innovation.
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
- Size
- 165,000 sq ft
- Client
- BentallGreenOak
- Completion
- 2026
- Sustainability Targeting LEED® Gold certification; Salmon Safe Certified; Clean BC’s Net-Zero Energy-Ready Challenge
- DIALOG Services
- Collaborators
HKA
BKProjects
Fast + Epp
AME Consulting Group
AES Engineering
GHL Consultants
BVDA
EXP
Introba
Gunn
Creus
Geopacific
RWDI
Bunt
CES
Ventana Construction + Trades
Architecture
Interior Design
Landscape Architecture
The building features a nine-storey mass timber structure on top of a concrete base. Glulam beams, columns, and braces with cross-laminated timber (CLT) walls and floor panels, are all used in the design
The major elements of the building are all prefabricated. The mass timber structure, building enclosure, and hybrid steel and cross laminated timber (CLT) balconies are all constructed off-site and lifted into place and installed.
In 2022, the building began construction with the first prefabricated mass timber structure beginning on site in Spring 2024.
The building acts as a gateway to the False Creek Flats, a neighbourhood currently going through a revitalization.
A perimeter timber braced frame structural system is traced by a series of balconies as architecture and structure combine to create a striking façade. This has led to the building being known as “The Hive.”
The open, airy main lobby provides a glimpse of what employees and visitors will find in the office spaces. Natural materials are used throughout the building.
Secure locker and bike storage equipment, designed with high quality, indirect lighting and durable but attractive finishes, are accessed directly from the street and lobby. Shower and washroom amenities are included as ‘forward facing’ spaces for tenants to start and end their days.
Large windows and exposed mass timber throughout promote occupant well-being through biophilic design principles.
Building occupants have direct access to outdoor balconies with gardens on every level.
The Hive offers amazing views of the surrounding neighbourhood and mountains. On the roof, a variety of lounge seating, shade trees and plantings create a relaxing refuge in the urban jungle.
The building combines the best of contemporary office design with mass timber. That means large floor plates, generous column spacing, and tall floor to floor heights.
Tectonus Seismic Dampers allow the structure to re-centre itself after an earthquake.
The building is designed for flexibility. Distribution of services such as mechanical, electrical and communications, and lighting have been designed with flexibility of future tenants in mind.
Setbacks, right-of-ways, and a 12-metre elevation gain determined the shape and location of the building on site. The landscaping ties into a major east-west ecological corridor.
The building shell was completed in 2026. Full tenant occupancy is expected in early 2027.
The Team
Martin Nielsen, DIALOG Principal-in-ChargeMass timber is comparable to conventional steel and concrete construction in terms of function, layout and constructability, but is more sustainable and creates a beautiful workplace.
