Büro Ole Scheeren, an international architectural firm, has reached a structural milestone with its first cantilever lifted successfully at Fifteen Fifteen, a 42-storey residential tower in Vancouver. Ole Scheeren’s first North American tower by Bosa Properties and Kingswood Properties introduces a new innovative way of high-rise living in a sculptural form, responding to the evolving, sustainable Vancouver city’s dynamic skyline.
Cantilevers at the Core: Büro Ole Scheeren’s Defining Gesture for Fifteen Fifteen
Located at the landmark, between downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park, Fifteen Fifteen offers open, accessible spaces, cantilever modules, and sculptural forms that integrate high-rise architecture into dense urban contexts. The design’s bold approach, featuring a series of outward cantilevers, provides a unique concept for a high-rise skyscraper and challenges conventional notions of residential towers.
The core philosophy of the design was to integrate Vancouver’s unique surrounding context, a fusion of urban density, waterfronts, and natural landscapes, into the residential built form. This resulted in a three-dimensional approach where residential modules are strategically placed in horizontal and vertical modules, creating an interlocking, dynamic cantilevered form. The design of the fifteen fifteen focuses on blurring the inside and outside spaces, connecting private living with the surrounding cityscape.
Residences Shaped by Horizontal and Vertical Modules
With a holistic vision, Ole Scheeren spatially arranged spaces across multiple levels; the tower accommodates 186 residences ranging from studios to three-bedroom homes.
The 18 observatory residences extend outward, offering residents 270-degree panoramic views and a sense of floating above the city, with glass-enclosed living spaces connecting to the outside and penthouse units on the upper level, providing an expansive, luxurious layout. Composed of horizontal and vertical modules, the design creates a sense of lightness and spatial fluidity in the residential tower.
Communal activities such as a sky lounge, fitness club, and green public areas are added on upper floors for visitors and residents to interact and relax while admiring the surrounding skyline. The design minimizes the footprint by vertically offsetting the structure and integrating the public plaza with an existing water cascade into the landscape.
The project also maintains pedestrian permeability at ground level, connecting the plaza and waterfront through integrated pathways. The architectural identity of the exterior and interior merges with the continuity of natural materials, colors, and textures. These thoughtful choices work both at the micro and macro scales, enhancing private living while enriching the public realm.
Fifteen Fifteen’s Modular Cantilevers Reshape Vancouver’s Urban Housing
The design enhances the waterfront context and creates a distinctive skyline by preceding historical features and building a plaza for community engagement. The project’s global relevance was recently recognized with the 2025 International Architecture Award in the Multi-Family Housing category.
As construction progresses, Fifteen Fifteen is anticipated to be completed in late 2027, setting a new prototype for urban living and creating context-responsive design. The form of the skyscraper challenges the repetitive form of the typical high-rise and demands a rethinking of dynamic, socially engaged buildings with interconnected spaces for modern city life.
Fifteen Fifteen Project Details
Location: 1515 Alberni Street, Vancouver, Canada
Architects: Büro Ole Scheeren
Developer/Client: Bosa Properties and Kingswood Properties
Status: Under construction, completion expected late 2027
Image Credit: © Graham Handford
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