The architectural practice originated in Montreal in 1964 and consisted solely of partners that graduated from the McGill University School of Architecture. Chronologically, the partnership evolved as follows:

1964 : Donaldson Drummond Sankey Architects (Montreal)
1968 : Donaldson Sankey Architects (Montreal)
1971 : Sankey Associates Architecture (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver)
1975 : Sankey Javosky Werleman Guy Architects (Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa)
1984 : Werleman & Guy Architectes (Montreal)
1985 : Werleman Guy McMahon Architectes (Montreal)

Partners :
James M.Donaldson (B.Arch.1962) FRAIC; 1964-1970
Derek Drummond (B.Arch.1962) FRAIC; 1964-1968
Lloyd P. Sankey (B.Arch.1958) FRAIC; 1964-1984
Rudolph V. Javosky (B.Arch.1962); 1964-1980
Michael G. Werleman (B.Arch.1962) FRAIC; 1966-2009
Jean-Eudes Guy (B.Arch.1957) FRAIC; 1973-1997
David S. McRobie (B.Arch.1971); 1972-1984
Frank A. McMahon (B.Arch.1972); 1975-2009

The partners were all professionals who, in the course of their respective careers, took an active part in the study and implementation of a large variety of projects, including institutional and academic buildings, office and commercial buildings, industrial and high-technology buildings, space planning and interiors projects, prototypes related to system-building, exhibition-type work, residential and community buildings, the renovation and recycling of existing buildings, and the restoration of significant heritage buildings. Throughout the years, the partnership provided continuing professional services to such clients as the City of Montreal, the City of Pointe-Claire, Bell Canada, IBM Canada, Mercedes-Benz of Canada, Coca-Cola Limited, and the Bank of Montreal.

Willard Ferdinand Wentzel was born around 1780 in Norway and died in 1832 in Ste. Agathe, Manitoba. He was the son of Adam Wentzel, a Norwegian merchant in Montreal, and Endymia Grout. He had at least one daughter with Agathe Letendre Montagnaise. In 1799, he was employed as a clerk by the North West Company, serving on the Mackenzie River and Great Bear Lake before taking charge of the North West Company post in Fort Providence on Great Slave Lake. On reaching Fort Providence in July 1820, Wentzel was appointed as an assistant for leader John Franklin, in the British Naval Exploring Expedition (first Arctic Land Expedition). He undertook to accompany the expedition to the Arctic coast, recruiting Indigenous inhabitants as guides and hunters. Setting out from Fort Providence in August 1820, the expedition reached Winter Lake where they built their winter base, Fort Enterprise. Leaving the fort in June 1821, they travelled to the mouth of the Coppermine River, where Wentzel and his party turned back, carrying dispatches and equipment for transmission to England. After the expedition, Wentzel served in the amalgamated Hudson's Bay Company in Fort Simpson between 1822 and 1824, at Fort Chipewyan between 1824 and 1825 and finally in Mingan on the Lower St. Lawrence River between 1827 and 1829 before retiring.