Sigi Liebmann arrived in Golden in the early 2000s as a Swiss Master Timberframer hired to assist Canadian Timberframes in the set-up of CNC technology and staff training . He had built his career doing exactly that kind of work in Europe — 3D modeling, machine programming, design consultancy across Switzerland and beyond. He was also part of the team developing a stacked DLT (dowel laminated timber) product in the 1990s in Switzerland. The plan was simple: help the Golden company get up and running, then go home.
He never went home.
“It just felt like home right from the start. I grew up on a small farm in Switzerland — a town with a hundred inhabitants. So I like the small town feel.”
— Sigi Liebmann, Founder, International Timberframes
Golden had that. But it had something else too, something he hadn’t expected: a scale of opportunity that Switzerland, for all its craft tradition, couldn’t match.
Back in Europe, Sigi had earned the highest level of training available in his trade — a higher technical school credential in wood engineering and professional timber expertise. It was a rigorous, years-long education. And in Switzerland, it made him one of many, since it is a common approach to do post-secondary training within the trades.
“Over there you are not even a number. And then coming over here, you realize with this specialized schooling from Switzerland — you’re the specialist.”
— Sigi Liebmann
The difference wasn’t just professional recognition. It was the kind of work that followed. Projects like the Pedestrian Bridge in Golden, the Eagle Eye development, and the day lodge at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort — commissions of that scale and complexity were once-in-a-career opportunities overseas. In Golden, they were just the first few years.
In 2003, Sigi founded International Timberframes. He had spent four years workiing for Canadian Timberframes, after that he consulted a few other companies with the same CNC technology and staff training across BC and Alberta. In 2005 his passion brought him back to his timberframing roots and he started hand-crafting timberframe structures.
Currently International Timberframes works in two product ranges : traditional hand-cut timber frames, and Dowel Laminated Timber panels — structural floor, wall, ceiling, and roof systems built from solid BC wood pressed together using only hardwood dowels. No glue. No nails.
That distinction is not cosmetic. Most mass timber products on the market — cross-laminated timber (CLT), glue-laminated timber (glulam) — achieve their structural properties through adhesive bonding. International Timberframes doesn’t.
“We want to do the same thing, but completely glue-free. Because we truly care about the natural material. We don’t want to contaminate it with glue, or have any off-gassing for people or for the indoor climate.”
— Sigi Liebmann
The performance outcome surprises most people: without glue, ITF’s DLT actually achieves a higher R-value than its glued counterparts. Better for buildings. Better for the people in them.
The company manufactures DLT panels in-house at their Donald facility using a prototype machine purpose-built in Revelstoke BC. That means complete quality control from raw lumber to finished structural panel, faster lead times, and a shorter supply chain. ITF also supplies DLT billets to secondary manufacturers, making them both a regional producer and an end-to-end builder depending on what a project requires.
ITF’s projects have been featured in Mountain Living magazine and covered by America by Design, a US television series on architecture. The company now ships across North America.
Sigi lives on a farm 10 minutes out of town. He raises Highland cattle, maintains beehives, grows vegetables in a greenhouse, and picks up spent grain from the local brewery to feed back through his livestock as fertilizer. The circle is intentional.
“For me, sustainability is not just a word — it’s actually a lifestyle.”
— Sigi Liebmann
That same thinking runs through every product ITF builds. Because their DLT is 100% uncontaminated wood — no adhesives, no synthetic binders — it is fully recyclable at end of life. It can be disassembled, reused, or composted without leaving chemical residue. This is genuinely circular construction, not a marketing claim.
The facility is heated by a biomass furnace fuelled entirely by ITF’s own wood offcuts and shavings — waste that would otherwise go to landfill. Lumber is sourced as locally as possible at every stage. Finishes are VOC-free where available.
For developers and organizations working toward ESG targets, building with International Timberframes is one of the most measurable decisions they can make. Wood is the only structural building material that actively sequesters carbon. Every ITF structure locks it in for the life of the building — while requiring a fraction of the embodied energy of steel or concrete to produce.
International Timberframes is a manufacturing company exporting high-value products to markets across North America — and Golden is a core part of why it works.
The access to regional timber supply, manageable operating costs, and a community where skilled tradespeople can build a full life — not just a job — made it possible to recruit and retain the team this kind of precision work demands.
The mass timber sector is accelerating. BC building codes are changing to accommodate taller wood buildings. ESG pressures are making sustainable material choices a procurement priority, not a preference. Architects who have worked with ITF say it changed how they think about wood construction entirely. That demand is growing — and International Timberframes is positioned at the front of it, with a technical depth that took decades to build and isn’t easily replicated.
Golden attracted a world-class specialist, gave him the conditions to build something lasting, and now benefits from an exporting manufacturer that puts the region on the map in an industry that is only growing in relevance. That story is still unfolding — and there is room here for more like it.
