Cornerstone has been in operation since 1974 and is a pioneer in Facilities Programming and Consultation. We have a commitment to continual advancement of our planning framework and the quality of our services. From our earliest days we made a conscious decision to work with different types of organizations in a variety of contexts, rather than specializing in planning for any one type of organization. This approach has given us the widest breadth of experience across community sectors and levels of government.
Our History
Throughout our history, our highest value has been on continually gaining new insights from different contexts, to foster innovation and keep us ahead of the curve. After five decades, we continue to look forward, incorporating new insights into our approaches to engagement, planning and feasibility studies.
Cornerstone Services For Businesses And Communities
We are a consultancy specializing in strategic planning for public sector organizations; in particular, strategic organizational planning and the infrastructure requirements that support them. In addition, we work closely with Indigenous communities helping to define and attain their specific and unique goals. Our work is strengthened through long-term planning and ongoing research into relevant trends and service demand patterns, and we keep the values, culture and traditions of our clients at the forefront of our planning framework. Typical strategic planning projects include confirmation of long-term vision and objectives, facility/functional programming, feasibility studies, needs analysis, space planning, organizational/operational reviews, long-range master plans, and phased development strategies.
The Cornerstone Model
For many years, we have used a conceptual model developed from general systems and decision-making theories. This proprietary model has enhanced our ability to focus on gathering relevant information in an efficient manner and articulating the important questions to be discussed.
The model focuses on resources as an interconnected system, and on activities as the driver of space.
The mandate of an organization determines its goals and objectives, the services it provides, and the activities it undertakes. Cornerstone’s model posits that every organization works to achieve its mandate with five resources – Human, Facilities, Equipment, Information, and Financial. Some organizations such as galleries, museums, and libraries have a sixth resource – Collections. These are interdependent in the sense that a change in one affects the others. Cornerstone specialises in Facilities planning by considering the impact of all other resources. This model gives us a holistic, robust view of possible futures, allowing us to define the facility that will best support an organization’s changing needs into an unknown future.
Our Projects
Cornerstone specializes in strategic planning for public sector organizations; in particular, the infrastructure and organizational requirements that support them. Cornerstone has designed and carried out over 1,000 projects in support of a wide range of high-profile planning initiatives for the public and private sector organizations throughout Western Canada.
Our projects span sectors, from health to education, communities to operations, justice to fire halls. We service partners in government, Indigenous communities, and the private sector. As our projects typically have long range timelines of 20+ years, our commitment is to provide our clients with the tools needed to make informed decisions about resource requirements to meet their mandates in an ever-changing environment.
