Prominently located on one of Nova Scotia’s busiest highways, the Atlantic Tractors CAT Dealership was designed to serve as a signatory landmark/icon in a sub-rural landscape, while perpetuating the unique and widely recognized CAT brand.

The Trifos Design Consultants Team felt that the standard, pre-engineered, industrial building typology would conflict with the pastoral setting of the site. The primary design challenge became that of creating a unique commercial/industrial building, befitting the site on which it was to be built.

The project design relied heavily on bold colour and form to articulate the nature of this commercial/industrial space. The iconic colour combination that plays out on the building’s facades echoes that of the CAT corporate logo, while the robust curvilinear and block-like forms of the structure emulate the appearance of CATs heavy machinery products.

From afar, the Atlantic Tractors CAT building resembles the machines seen frequently in settings with an architectural backdrop. In the end, the building was successful in integrating a commercial/industrial branding aesthetic with the iconography of a typical sub-rural setting.