FROM THE GROUND DOWN

Plymouth Street Campus  –– MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA

Broadreach Capital Partners retained Cornerstone Earth Group, Inc. to provide environmental and geotechnical engineering services for a 6-story office building totaling 245,000 SF and a 4-level parking garage. The Project is designed to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. Broadreach was established in 2002 and is a real estate investment firm that focuses on western U.S. commercial and hotel properties. The design team also consisted of WRNS Studio, Architect, and Nova Partners, Construction Manager, to meet the construction needs of Broadreach and their tenant Google.

1625 Plymouth Street is a source of contamination that dates back to prior owners and occupants of the 1960s and 1970s. To make this site suitable for commercial development Broadreach and Cornerstone worked proactively with the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) and the responsible parties to accelerate the cleanup of the property. These efforts resulted in the completion of a successful in-situ chemical reduction program in 2013, eventually resulting in the Water Board’s approval of site development. In addition to this successful groundwater remediation effort, Broadreach directed Cornerstone to design a vapor barrier system underneath the building’s slab to effectively eliminate vapor intrusion concerns (the movement of chemical vapors from contaminated groundwater or soil into a nearby building), resulting in the safest possible indoor air quality for future occupants.

cornerstone's added value benefit:

  • Performed load testing on test piles to reduce the number and length of piles.
  • Selected augercast pressure grouted displacement piles (APGD) piles to lower noise and vibration during installation (as compared to driven pile types) to minimize the generation of soil spoils and to virtually eliminate the potential for downward migration of contaminated groundwater.
  • Coordinated with the Water Board and Responsible Parties in Site development activities.

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Our History

Although Cornerstone Earth Group, Inc. (Cornerstone) officially opened its doors in 2007, the seeds that grew into Cornerstone were planted years earlier. The founders originally met at Lowney Associates, where Cornerstone President and CEO, Ron Helm, had been since the late 1980s, eventually becoming COO, and later, President. But they became unhappy with the direction the company took when they were acquired by a larger public engineering firm in 2003. The future Cornerstone founders found themselves in agreement that the new company placed too much focus on dollars and cents and too little on customer service.

Eventually, the lack of priority given to the client’s needs became unacceptable, and Mr. Helm, along with Barry Butler (retired), Scott Fitinghoff (deceased), Laura Knutson (retired), Danh Tran, John Dye, Peter Langtry and Ron Massone launched the fledgling enterprise. They opened for business in Sunnyvale, California where, although it has since expanded, Cornerstone’s original office is still located today. Soon after, Kurt Soenen came on board. Before long, the company opened a second office in Walnut Creek, California.

In the beginning Cornerstone had no employees; the Principals drew no salary; and the Sunnyvale office was so wide open that they would amuse themselves and release the stress of working long hours by holding chair races on the premises. Who eventually became the chair racing champion remains a subject of contentious debate. The founding Principals generated their own business; performed the field work; performed the engineering analyses; and prepared their own documents.

After a year or two, enough business began to roll in that the first few employees were hired and, although they might not have known it, were actually paid more than the founders in the beginning. Over the next few years, the Principals found themselves happily surprised as some early successes occurred and the amount of business generated significantly increased. As an example, Mr. Helm describes an early meeting he had with Facebook when it was a small privately owned company. Even though at the time Facebook’s projects were small, Cornerstone treated their business the same as they would their largest client, and as a result Facebook remains a loyal client to this day. Eventually, many more Bay Area giants retained the services of Cornerstone Earth Group such as Adobe, Google and LinkedIn, to name a few. 

As the company has increased in size, emphasis was placed on organic growth, with most new customers coming through recommendations and word-of-mouth. It is also a core belief held by Cornerstone that to continue the growth of the company it is critical to follow our four corners of success:  1) Be Exceptional; 2) Add Value; 3) Learn and Improve; and 4) Have Fun. In addition, it was clear that Cornerstone also emphasized providing employees with a clear path forward to success by consistently creating opportunities for employees to grow with the company.

Mr. Helm is quick to point to the selfless teamwork and genuine friendship among the founders, along with their client-first approach and cost-effective practical recommendations, as the primary reasons the company at first survived, and eventually, thrived.