About / Since 1987
Built to last
Three generations of builders, twelve architects and one rule: the people who draw the building sit next to the people who build it.
01 / Our story
From a framing crew to a design-build firm.
Walt Corbel started with a pickup, two carpenters and a reputation for framing that came out square. Contractors kept calling him back to fix the gaps between what architects drew and what got built.
So when his son Daniel took over the commercial side, and architect Amara Okafor joined in 2009, they closed the gap for good: one firm, one team, one contract. Corbel Studio now designs most of what we build, and every drawing is priced by the estimators sitting across the room.
In 2017 we became fully employee-owned. The 140 people who work here own the company, and you can tell on site.
1987
Walt Corbel starts a three-person framing crew in a rented garage on Mitchell Street.
1996
First commercial contract: the Bay View Credit Union branch, still open today.
2009
Amara Okafor founds Corbel Studio, bringing architecture in-house.
2017
Madison studio opens. Corbel becomes 100% employee-owned.
2025
Malt House Lofts wins the Wisconsin Preservation Award.
02 / What we stand for
Four rules we don’t bend.
01
Draw it, price it, build it
Every drawing is costed by the people who will build it, the day it is made.
02
Open books
Clients see the same cost ledger we do. Savings are shared 50/50.
03
Everyone home safe
Any worker can stop any task. No schedule is worth an injury.
04
Buildings that last
We design for a hundred years and detail for the next owner too.
03 / Leadership
The people who sign off.
Daniel Corbel
Chief executive
Started on his father’s framing crew at sixteen. Ran site operations for twelve years before taking over in 2015.
BSc Construction Mgmt, UW–Milwaukee
Amara Okafor
Principal architect, Corbel Studio
Founded the studio in 2009 after a decade designing libraries in Chicago. Leads every concept review.
AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Tomasz Wierzbicki
Director of construction
Thirty-one years on site, from carpenter to superintendent to running all 18 of our live projects.
OSHA 500 trainer
Lena Hart
Director of safety
Built the program behind our 0.62 safety rating. Walks a different site every morning.
CSP, CHST
04 / Safety record
Everyone goes home safe.
Our experience modification rate has fallen six years running. Every site starts the day with a ten-minute safety brief, and any worker, ours or a trade partner’s, can stop work without asking.
- Hours without lost time
- 2.1M
- EMR, 3-year avg
- 0.62
- Supervisors OSHA 30
- 100%
| Year | EMR |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 0.78 |
| 2021 | 0.71 |
| 2022 | 0.69 |
| 2023 | 0.64 |
| 2024 | 0.61 |
| 2025 | 0.62 |
05 / Careers
Build with us.
Employee-owned, with profit sharing from day one, paid apprenticeships and a four-day week on site in winter.
Project manager, commercial
MilwaukeeFull-time
Run $5–30M projects from GMP to handover with a superintendent and two engineers.
Apply: Project manager, commercialSite superintendent
MilwaukeeFull-time
Lead a site of up to 60 trades on our mass-timber office projects.
Apply: Site superintendentProject architect
MadisonFull-time
Take residential and civic projects from concept to permit set, licensed or near licensure.
Apply: Project architectEstimator
MilwaukeeFull-time
Price designs as they are drawn, working next to the studio every day.
Apply: EstimatorCarpentry apprentice
MilwaukeeApprenticeship
Four-year paid apprenticeship with tuition covered and a guaranteed role at the end.
Apply: Carpentry apprentice
Don’t see your role? Send a CV to careers@corbel.example. We read every one.
Next step
Have a site? Let’s put numbers on it.
Run your project through the estimator for a budget range in two minutes, then book a free site walk with a project director.