With more than 30 years of expertise in well crafted and beautiful timber frame landscape structures, homes, cottages, and commercial buildings, Cornerstone Timberframes, a second-generation family-run company, prides itself on manufacturing superior products throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Founded in 1991 by brothers Pete and Wayne Peters, who were drawn to timber framing and committed themselves to learning the craft, Cornerstone Timberframes operated out of a tiny barn in the early years, with the brothers manually unloading timbers and using a single-sided planer to surface and square the wood, while hand saws, ship’s augers, and chisels were used to cut joinery. Cornerstone expanded along with growing demand, and in 2002, the barn was replaced by a larger shop with contemporary equipment after a successful tradeshow in Minneapolis, allowing for the completion of more challenging projects with exacting attention to detail.
After joining Cornerstone in 2001 to assist with office operations, Pete’s daughter Tanya Bachmeier became engaged in the design and finishing aspects of the company, offering clients advice on stain and finish options, eventually applying finishes to timber frames. Tanya took over as Cornerstone’s CEO in 2015 when the brothers were ready to retire, and her husband, Nevin Bachmeier, joined the company in 2016, bringing with him a love for innovative ideas and a planner’s approach. Adhering to the family’s fundamental principles of honesty, excellence, and service, this leadership has brought Cornerstone into a new era of mass timber and commercial work.
Cornerstone started using glulam beams in 2016, with the first of two CNC timber cutting machines added in 2018, and shortly afterward, cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels that could span large distances as walls and floors were introduced.
Additionally, the company remains dedicated to cutting back on waste, promoting ecological health, and being worthy ancestors to future generations.
“Cornerstone Timberframes was started by my father and my uncle, who had a passion for timber framing,” says Tanya Bachmeier, Chief Executive Officer. “It started as a very traditional timber framing company, and over time, it grew in size. They spent a lot of time blazing a trail in Manitoba and the surrounding areas, because timber framing was a very new concept there.”
Making awareness a priority, the brothers spent valuable time educating people and helping them understand the benefits of moving to timber framing. As the company slowly grew and added more employees, it moved from small to slightly larger production shops, where everything was done by hand.
“About 11 years ago, my dad and uncle were ready to retire, so they sold the company to my husband Nevin and I, and I took over the company,” says Bachmeier. “At that transition, we introduced automation to take some of the heavy lifting of the timbers and do some of the generalized, larger, more challenging saw cuts for the joinery details.”
A used CNC machine was employed to start that process of automation, and eventually, over time, a brand-new machine was added. At the time, that machine was the largest CNC equipment for mass timber fabrication in the country. “It really launched us more into the commercial world of mass timber and mass timber fabrication,” Bachmeier says. “The new CNC automated equipment allowed us to push through timber sizes and lengths that weren’t possible for us previously, and gave us the capacity to do more large-scale commercial projects.”
As the company’s capacity and capabilities changed, it shifted its focus away from smaller residential projects (although it still does small residential heavy timber custom cottages and similar projects) to focus more on the commercial side and the sustainability of using mass timber as a structural component, as opposed to concrete and steel in large projects.
Major accomplishments early on in commercial endeavours include assisting on a six-storey mass timber building in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the first of its kind. “We felt privileged to be a part of that project as it was the commencement of using mass timber in a multi-story structure in Manitoba,” says Bachmeier. “We were really excited to be a part of that.”
The company is also proudly female-led in an industry that has historically been primarily male-dominated (but is “definitely” changing). “It’s certainly been really exciting to see new female engineers, architects, builders, and general contractors enter the construction space,” Bachmeier says. “It’s been a fantastic transition for the whole industry.”
With just over 60 employees, more than 50 percent of Cornerstone’s employee base is female, but Bachmeier stresses a focus on having a diverse employee base and including a variety of people with wide-ranging skill sets and strengths. The company aims to place each employee in a place where they’re able to best use their strengths and feel comfortable.
“We’re always looking to hire the best person for the project or specific position,” adds Bachmeier. “As far as it being a contributing factor to the industry or the success of the company, being female-led, I don’t know that it’s necessarily that much different than a male-led company. I try to lead with integrity, compassion, and respect for my co-workers and clients. I don’t know that that’s because I’m female or maybe that’s good leaders in general, but those are some of the things I try to highlight.”
While there may still be some surprise expressed toward her position within the industry, Bachmeier says she doesn’t think about it much. “It’s what I do. I do the best that I can, but it’s not something that’s constantly top of mind.”
Respecting Cornerstone’s family history, however, is something she thinks a lot about, consciously embracing the ways she approaches different situations and opportunities based on the foundation she received from her dad and uncle over the years.
“I’ve been here for a long time, working together with my dad and my uncle, and I learned a lot from them,” she says. “From the way they led and from the examples they were for me—making sure to put employees first, giving them as much opportunity and giving back as much as possible, was a primary concern for my dad and my uncle, and it’s something I do as well.”
For Bachmeier, it’s been important to honour the company her family started, and even though it’s a very different company now than it was then, it’s been vital to recognize the values they instilled while ensuring its success.
Maintaining the longstanding company culture is an important element as well. “It’s something we put a lot of focus on,” Bachmeier says. “We have two different streams within our company: the sales and design side, and then the production, fabrication, finishing, and installation side. There are a lot of different components and types of positions within the company, and we try to make sure we stay united as a team and focus on a common goal.”
Encouraging company unity also entails arranging excursions or events once a month that include the entire group, while a biweekly video presentation features different fun happenings, highlighting individual employees and special projects to keep everyone informed and connected.
Indeed, keeping employees united and passionate is key to Cornerstone’s mission of designing and delivering timber and mass timber structures across Canada and the United States, with a “very rapid” growth pattern seen in the company over the last eight years or so. As the company evolves and grows, its expertise and strengths do so as well, says Bachmeier.
“Our background as traditional timber framers has given us a focus on quality and precision, and with the ever-changing landscape in the mass timber market, we’ve found our deep knowledge and experience in the mass timber and heavy timber industry has been a huge asset for us to guide clients through projects, taking them all the way through from the design, to production, to the finishing and install phases of the project,” she shares.
Even though mass timber is still a newer concept in the commercial construction space, having that foundation and experience in Cornerstone’s team has allowed for the smooth execution of various types of unique and challenging large-scale commercial projects. With growth comes its own challenges, and Cornerstone has had to deal with the integration of automation, a big step and a big challenge, but certainly a very worthwhile advancement.
“It’s similar to educating the industry about mass timber in the same way my dad and uncle originally educated the province and surrounding areas about timber framing in general,” explains Bachmeier. “Now it’s the same idea with mass timber, with it being in a commercial space where it’s a structural component. That’s new and different for a lot of general contractors. Getting information in the hands of people who need to see it—engineers, architects, and general contractors—has definitely been a challenge.”
Maintaining the pace of growth Cornerstone has been operating on is also vital, she stresses. “Because it’s an exploding market right now, we want to stay at the forefront and make sure we’re increasing our capacity for the demand.” The company has handled it well by bringing together an “incredible” team of people who are all focused on a common goal: successfully executing a number of large-scale commercial projects and playing a role in advancing the mass timber market.
Looking ahead, Cornerstone aims to expand its reach in the U.S. market while staying focused on continuing growth and advancing the mass timber sector. And Bachmeier stresses that this is all made possible due to an amazing, talented staff that ensures clients’ dreams and visions become reality.
It is those employees, armed with extensive knowledge and experience coupled with an integrated process, that will help determine future success.
“Most companies in this space do pieces of the process, but we’re able to take a client right from connection to detailed design and procurement, through component fabrication, pre-finishing and installation,” Bachmeier says. “Having that all within our portfolio is something that’s definitely more unique to the industry, and allows us to ensure a smooth process, because we have all of those stages within our company. That’s something that definitely sets us apart.”
