Archibald Westmacott McVittie was born in Ontario on May 5, 1858 to Thomas and Bessie (Jessie?) McVittie. After attending Upper Canada College in Toronto to study architecture, McVittie took up land surveying, training, and articling with Maurice Gaviller of Barrie, he was sworn in as a Professional Land Surveyor (PLS) in July 1879. After briefly working in Michigan in late 1879 and operating his own office in Barrie in 1880, by December 1880 he had formed a partnership with architect Thomas Kennedy that would last until August 1881 when William J. Holland joined the firm and it became known as Kennedy, McVittie and Holland with the firm establishing offices in Barrie, Collingwood and Toronto. McVittie qualified as a Dominion Land Surveyor (DLS number 103) on March 30, 1882 and he was employed by the Dominion government to survey townships west of the second and fourth meridians. This survey work included the area between Touchwood and Raymore, Saskatchewan in June and July 1882, laying out the townsite of Fort McLeod in 1883 and the townsite for Calgary (signing plans for the city in January 1884). McVittie then proceeded to establish a branch office of Kennedy, McVittie and Holland in Calgary, but at some point between 1884 and 1887, McVittie became a partner in a firm that operated as McVittie, Child and Wilson, Architects and Surveyors [with James Turner Child and James L. Wilson]. After 1887, he moved to Fort Steele, British Columbia where he joined his brother Thomas Thane McVittie in surveying this area until 1895 when his former partner Thomas Kennedy invited McVittie back to Barrie. He decided to return and worked in the firm Thomas Kennedy & Co. until 1897 when he retraced his way back west to Calgary and Fort McLeod and again to Fort Steele. McVittie would marry Emily Louise Leslie on November 18, 1899 in British Columbia and together they had two children (Charles Archibald in 1900 and Margaret Emily in 1902). After the birth of his children, McVittie and his family moved to Cranbrook where he became involved in coal and lumber industries as well as in real estate and he became a founding member of the Cranbrook Board of Trade. In 1908, McVittie retired and moved to Victoria, British Columbia.
McVittie died on August 24, 1926 in Victoria and is memorialised in Ross Bay Cemetery.