The Hive is a ten story mass timber office tower at 2150 Keith Drive in Vancouver, BC. With nearly 165,000 SF of floor area, the building’s four levels below grade and first floor are concrete and the nine upper levels are braced frame mass timber construction. With a state of the art seismic design it is the tallest building of its kind in North America. The project is fully electrified, with no natural gas consumption on site, making it a leader in sustainability. Targeting LEED Gold certification, the project is Net Zero ready and has been recognized with a CleanBC Better Building Award.

The building’s interior design highlights the mass timber feature with exposed wood, wood soffits and abundant glazing. It features balconies between the brace bays on the south, west and east elevations. The façade extends to the top of the building beyond the highest office floor to create a windscreen and guard for an open-air roof deck. This rooftop space features an urban agriculture and garden space.

The balconies are constructed of mass timber and steel and feature planters and irrigation integrated with a drainage system. They have their own waterproofing system, treated like a series of roofs. Rainwater is managed on the exterior of the building where it is collected on all levels and directed into the braced elements directing it to a landscaped stormwater channel at grade. The rainwater is filtered here before returning to city connection.

EXP was retained by Bentall Green Oak in 2017 to provide building envelope consulting for the Hive starting at the schematic design phase through to the completion of construction. EXP provided reviews of shop drawings and submittals, field reviews of below grade waterproofing, and reviews of the curtainwall mock-ups. As the above grade portion of the building upfolded, EXP provided field review and testing services. Excavation began in 2022 and the project was substantially completed in January 2026.

Building envelope performance (thermal performance of walls, roofs and glazing assemblies) is intrinsically linked to the type of mechanical systems needed to heat and cool the building. In order to meet the low Thermal Energy Demand Intensity (TEDI) design the building required a nearly airtight, thermally efficient building envelope which included a high-performance triple-glazed curtain wall.

An integrated design approach led to an effective way to achieve innovation and improvements in the building envelope design. Design meetings were held during the design development, schematic design and construction document phases between Dialog, EXP, and curtainwall consultant with the design goals of achieving high thermal performance, low air leakage, watertight design and durability.

Construction documents development included input from the construction manager for constructability. Specifications included requirements for strict quality control processes during construction including construction of off-site full scale mock ups of the curtainwall and site mock ups of repetitive and complex details. Extensive on-site water leakage and air leakage testing of the building envelope components was performed by the Contractor as well as the consulting team at different stages of construction.

The building envelope achieved the design requirements. A gap between the curtainwall and balconies allows continuous drainage down the façade. Balconies are supported by steel outriggers featuring structural thermal breaks to minimize heat transfer, reduce penetrations through the façade and simplify water resistance and air barrier detailing. Whole building air tightness testing confirmed the building envelope performance at 30% less than the design target.