Gravity Architecture Corporation is an architecture firm based in Vancouver, B.C. and Calgary, Alberta helmed by Jim Vasto, Stephen Barnecut and Trent Letwiniuk. The firm was originally formed to provide professional services to the clients of Inertia Residential Design. Since then, Gravity has grown to provide architectural solutions to developers and builders of all sizes.

Gravity’s founders met in 1999. Stephen Barnecut and Trent Letwiniuk, first connected while working for Alloy Homes, a Calgary-based custom home builder. Working at Alloy set the foundation for a long-lasting friendship, the formation of two successful businesses, and some truly inspired architecture.

After seven years working with some of Calgary’s leading homebuilders, Stephen and Trent decided to strike out on their own. 

One morning Stephen said, “Either we do this today and it happens, or we don’t, and it never does.” Trent responded, “Alright. Let’s do this!” That afternoon, Inertia Residential Design was born. As a full-service design and drafting company, Inertia was the predecessor to Gravity. We’ll come back to this in a minute.

Like many start-ups, Inertia had humble beginnings: we worked out of our homes, wore a lot of hats, and hustled our tails off to grow the business.

Under Stephen and Trent’s leadership, Inertia designed custom homes, semi-detached buildings, small multi-residential buildings, home renovations, and suites. Consulting services like site analysis, marketing drawings, and project renderings were also part of the offering.

By 2014, several larger-scale projects were on the horizon. Seeing an opportunity, Trent and Stephen agreed, “We need to set up an architecture firm.” And just like that, Gravity was born!

Shortly thereafter, we began work on our first-ever architectural project in partnership with RNDSQR. It was an eight-unit R‑CG townhouse development called Mount Pleasant 8.

We soon developed a reputation for delivering innovative, thoughtful design to homeowners, builders, developers, and subcontractors. Clients relied on us to work with local authorities and other stakeholders to keep projects moving along smoothly.

“Working with Gravity was seamless,” said Kevin Pyle, Owner of On Track Residential and previous Director of Product & Design at Hopewell Residential. “They were able to take the baton, get the work done with minimal direction, and produce a set of technical drawings flawlessly. The outcome was that our permit was approved without issue, which meant I could begin building for the customer in a timely manner. It was really easy, and that’s what I liked about it the most.”

In 2017, Arrive at Sage Meadows, went to construction. This six-acre site had been explored previously by several developers who were unable to make it work. The Partners Development Group took a risk, acquired the site, and engaged Gravity to help solve the puzzle.

“Arrive at Sage Meadows was a feel-good project for all kinds of reasons,” Trent said. “In a time when the market for townhouses was floundering, we were able to unlock this site’s potential and it went on to be one of the highest performing projects, in terms of sales, that we’d ever worked on.”

Greg Gutek, President of Partners said, “When we select an architectural partner, we look for experience, communication, and attitude. We need them to hit timelines and have the horsepower to do that. Gravity ticked all those boxes for us.”

By 2018, Gravity became our primary focus as its projects outnumbered Inertia’s. “We were genuinely surprised by how many people were interested in working with our young firm,” Stephen said. 

Since then, Gravity has moved into a new, larger office in downtown Calgary, expanded into British Columbia, and brought on a new principal, Jim Vasto.  Our portfolio now includes an array of noteworthy multi-residential, commercial, and mixed-use architecture projects.

“We’ve completed several projects with Gravity starting with a 92-unit project called Arrive at Redstone Way,” said Gutek. “We followed that up with two 99-unit projects and then a 174-unit project. It was a mixed-use commercial development with five different residential types, and it turned out to be very successful.”

Our track record of delivering desirable, buildable design models, within budget and on schedule, is a direct result of our team’s dedication and direct involvement from beginning to end. 

“The design of the model is very important to the marketability of the home. It comes back to the customer when they’re walking through the home and saying to themselves, ‘Okay, this works for me’,” said Thiago Waechter, Project Manager at Brookfield Residential. “We were satisfied that Gravity understood our customers’ needs through our model directive and then translated those needs into a quality model that was well-designed and constructable.”

Today, we’re immensely proud to be expanding into new markets while working with clients who trust us with their most complex and challenging initiatives.

“Streetside is a detail-oriented company and process is really important to us. We want to see our projects proceeding apace and on budget, so it’s vital that our partner has the right procedures in place to make that happen. Year over year, Gravity has hit the mark,” said Don O’Dwyer, Development Manager at StreetSide Developments, a Qualico company.

Our beginnings as independent design firm have attracted customers who want the high level of creativity typical of boutiques, combined with the stability and horsepower offered by the bigger firms. And while our team has tripled in size, we’ve maintained the culture established in the early days of Inertia. We still wear multiple hats, still hustle, and still have a great time doing it! 

The joy of taking something that exists in your imagination and turning that into reality is as magical as you’d expect. Even better is the feeling you get from creating spaces that people enjoy living and working in—spaces that make their lives better, just for existing.

Stephen summed it up like this, “There are so many tiny decisions that need to be made to produce this outcome, and when we can get most of them right, it’s very gratifying.”

If you have a project that needs the guidance of an experienced architecture firm, we’d love to work with you.