// COMPANY DOSSIER
root architecture inc
A small Dartmouth, Nova Scotia architecture firm specializing in sustainable, mass-timber and LEED-oriented design for cultural, institutional, healthcare, education, commercial and residential projects across Atlantic Canada.
📍 Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CanadaEst. 2011✓ 100% first-party verified
// CLIPS FROM root architecture inc
“the other challenge we had was the biggest building on site was the barn at 600 square feet”
“in this market i mean you have to roll up your sleeves and get involved in all kinds of scales of projects”
“people travel from china japan and this is one of their stops on their route”
“when i started the business it was hard to find work and now it's hard to find good employees”
“i remember the day that we were awarded the green gables project it was a thursday”
“i was lucky when i started noel fowler sent me to a project meeting i was about three months out of school”
“the air traffic control tower we used to say is like it was like building a swiss watch”
“my father-in-law's name is george hatfield and he was in the construction business for his whole life”
// LESSONS FROM root architecture inc
In small markets like Atlantic Canada, architects (and construction firms) cannot afford to specialize — breadth of project type is a survival requirement.
Cycling junior architects (or construction professionals) through every project phase — design, production, and construction administration — builds far better practitioners than silo-based large-firm models.
Being 'firm but fair' on site — acknowledging mistakes and focusing on solutions rather than blame — earns lasting respect from contractors and creates relationships that outlast any project.
Design-build procurement reduces adversarial contractor-architect dynamics compared with design-bid-build, because the same parties collaborate before and during construction.
NLT (nail-laminated timber) is a simple, cost-effective mass-timber option available to Atlantic Canada projects — engineered two-by-fours on edge, crane-placed in large panels.
Atlantic Canada's green building adoption was structurally constrained by fragmented multi-level government, small project scale, and no regional manufacturing base — not lack of will.
// ON THE RECORD WITH
Parks Canada Agency
Works with
Design of Anne of Green Gables Visitor Centre, Cavendish PEI — phased federal project
Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)
Works with
Procurement and project management partner on Green Gables Visitor Centre
Diamond Schmitt Architects (formerly A.J. Diamond, Donald Schmitt & Company)
Works with
Collaborated on Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Dalhousie University, via Lyden Lynch
WoodWorks Atlantic (Atlantic WoodWorks!)
Member of
Kendall received 2019 Architect of the Year award from Atlantic Woodworks group
Canada Wood Council
Member of
Received Canada Wood Council award (circa May 2021) likely for Green Gables Visitor Centre
// SELECTED PROJECTS
Green Gables Visitors' Centre (Anne of Green Gables Visitors Centre), Phase II
CompletedArchitectural Design, Interiors and Prime Consultant (Architect of Record)
Phase II (exhibit hall, gift shop, ticket/info, offices, washrooms, lobby) completed spring 2019; 1,090 m2 / 12,804 sq.ft.; ~85% mass timber with locally fabricated nail-laminated timber (NLT). Client: Parks Canada (PSPC design review / project management). Structural/civil/mechanical/electrical: CBCL Limited. Construction administration: Sablearc Studios. The centre is open and operating as of 2026 (Tourism PEI / TripAdvisor 2026).
// KEY PEOPLE
// NOTABLE
Root Architecture was credited as 'Architectural Design, Interiors and Prime Consultant' on the Green Gables Visitors' Centre, with structural and other engineering by CBCL Limited and the building totalling 1,090 m2 (12,804 sq.ft.), of which roughly 85% of columns, beams and trusses are exposed mass timber / NLT.
SOURCE ▸The Green Gables Visitors' Centre was designed to be 100% powered by renewable energy and was pursuing LEED Gold with special attention to local materials (2019 case study); the firm now describes the project as LEED Gold certified.
SOURCE ▸Root architecture inc is a Dartmouth, NS firm founded in 2011 ('10 years of architecture with purpose'), led by President Kendall S. Taylor, with a LEED-accredited team working across academic, commercial, healthcare, institutional, residential and mixed-use sectors in Atlantic Canada.
SOURCE ▸Building like this in Atlantic Canada?
Be a guest ▸