Place of Work is an architecture studio with one foot in Halifax and one in Toronto, founded by Jennifer Esposito, Duncan Patterson, and Will Perkins. The three first worked together at MacKay Lyons Sweetapple Architects, and when COVID shook everything loose they realized a practice built on trust and shared shorthand could live in two cities. Today they design mostly houses, with a deep interest in the rituals that happen inside them, and the studio was featured in the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2026. The name comes from a term in a Canadian construction contract, where it simply means the site, but they loved how it also speaks to place and to work.
Will was born in Halifax, spent his early years in Los Angeles and New Zealand while his luthier father worked abroad, and trained in lighting design at the National Theatre School of Canada before starting architecture school at 26. Duncan grew up between Regina and his dad’s cattle ranch, sketching in colored Conte and building fences, then came to Dalhousie by way of an architectural technology program. Jennifer, a Toronto native and former varsity swimmer, followed Carleton and Harvard’s GSD with practice in Yellowknife and Halifax, and now teaches at Toronto Metropolitan University while advocating for equity in the profession through BEAT.
Away from the studio, Will cooks ambitious dinners, meditates early in the morning, and is learning tennis for the joy of not being good at it. Duncan hikes, camps, plays rec league basketball, and joins his brother’s nonprofit that turns basketball courts into murals. Jennifer reads, travels, and dreams of a shack on the ocean.
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