// COMPANY DOSSIER
Fathom Studio
Integrated, multidisciplinary design firm combining architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, interpretive planning, and environmental/experiential graphic design (wayfinding, branded environments). Works heavily on culture- and community-focused public space in Atlantic Canada.
📍 Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CanadaEst. 2019✓ 100% first-party verified
// CLIPS FROM Fathom Studio
“it was 2006 there was not much going on here”
“if you really want to be successful in this business you need to learn all parts of it”
“that lot was just a sore point for halifax for my entire lifetime”
“height is a challenge heritage is a challenge always in halifax”
“i'll give you an example with the george i had the construction permit and we broke ground about two days after”
“the george has this idea of volumes kind of skewed on top of each other”
“the george has this and our project before flynn flats as well we're doing suite by suite utility metering”
“so we build exclusively apartment buildings with some mixed use in them”
“fundamentally the most important thing is to align all the different parties that are involved”
// LESSONS FROM Fathom Studio
Vertical integration (design + build + manage) forces you to own your mistakes and compounds learning across every subsequent project.
Bring in-house architectural detail capacity early; relying on craftsmen alone fails as the industry grows and labour thins.
A tri-frequency meeting cadence (daily, weekly 3-week look-ahead, bi-monthly PM) prevents last-minute resource scrambles with subcontractors.
Think of yourself as a facilitator of subcontractor expertise, not a controller — your job is to clear the path so they showcase their skills.
Stack approvals and construction phases in parallel; waiting for each step to finish before starting the next doubles timelines.
On major urban projects, budget 10+ years from initial concept to occupancy; the construction phase is a small fraction of the full project timeline.
// SELECTED PROJECTS
Argyle & Grafton Shared Streetscape
CompletedPrime Consultant — Landscape Architecture, Engineering/Transportation, Urban Design, Wayfinding (as predecessor Ekistics Plan + Design)
Atlantic Canada's first shared street; design 2016, construction/opening 2017. Won an Atlantic Planners Institute (API) award for Excellence in Planning in Oct 2018 and an APALA Award of Excellence. Credited to predecessor firm Ekistics Plan + Design, now Fathom Studio.
Cogswell Transformed (concept design)
In progressConcept design (predecessor Ekistics Plan + Design)
Removal of the 1960s Cogswell Interchange to create a ~16-acre district linking downtown to Halifax's north end; one of the largest urban redevelopments in Atlantic Canada. Fathom (as Ekistics) did early concept design; HRM is the owner and construction is led by others. As of 2026 the City project is in active construction (Phase 2). Fathom's role is the original design concept, not current construction.
Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre — Wije'winen Centre
In progressArchitecture, Landscape Architecture, Planning, Branding
New home for the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre. Fathom's own page states 'Ongoing — Anticipated 2026.' Freshness check: a tree-sprouting ceremony marked the symbolic start of construction and reporting around it cites a ~$68M cost with funding still being raised and an expected opening of summer 2027 — so the completion date is later than the project page implies. Marked in_progress to be safe; do NOT state a confident completion year on air.
// KEY PEOPLE
RL
CC
DS
AF
JR
// NOTABLE
Winner of the 2023 RAIC (Royal Architectural Institute of Canada) Emerging Architectural Practice Award — only the second firm in Atlantic Canada to receive it.
SOURCE ▸Formed in 2019 through the merger of two long-running firms founded by Rob LeBlanc in the mid-1990s — Ekistics Plan + Design (landscape architecture/planning, which added architecture in 2014) and Form:Media (graphic/environmental design).
SOURCE ▸Headquartered at 40 King Street, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; an integrated team of roughly 45 architects, landscape architects, planners, interpretive planners and environmental graphic designers.
SOURCE ▸