WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn. — After six years of planning, renovation and building, the state-of-the-art White Bear Lake High School has officially re-opened its doors to faculty, staff and students. Part of a $326-million districtwide facilities project, the expanded school merges modernity and practicality to bring White Bear Lake District’s vision of future-focused education to life.��

Community Voices����

In 2018, St. Paul, Minn.-based Wold Architects began working with White Bear Lake School District to conduct a facilities planning assessment. A 90-member planning committee composed of community members, staff members and students was created to review facilities-related ideas, priorities and solutions, focusing on capacity, location and general improvements. A final facilities plan was adopted by the district school board and was approved by voters in November 2019. ��

The previous White Bear Lake High School campus was split between lower and upper grades. For the past 40 years, 9th and 10th graders attended school at the North Campus, while 11th and 12th grader students studied at the South Campus four miles south. In collaboration with the district and Minneapolis-based Kraus-Anderson Construction, Wold Architects developed a plan to unite all students in a single facility. This involved significant additions and renovations to the existing 9th and 10th grade buildings, while also reimagining how students and faculty would experience education and teaching.��

“This project is about more than just a building — it’s about creating a future for our students that reflects the values and voices of our community,” said Wayne Kazmierczak, superintendent at White Bear Lake Area Schools. “By uniting all of our high school students and staff under one campus, we’ve created an environment where collaboration, growth and opportunity thrive. This school ensures that our students are not only prepared for today but are ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow, and we’re proud to be in a space that honors our past while embracing the potential of our future.”��

The Campus Experience��

The project as a whole spans 285,000 square feet of renovated space and 375,000 square feet of new construction. The remodeled three-story building now holds a capacity of 3,200 students and accounts for anticipated enrollment growth. ��

The design creates open, flexible spaces that empower students to take charge of their educational experience. The malleable environment fosters a sense of innovation and separates the spaces from traditional classroom concepts. Interconnected classrooms, or Learning Studios, house flexible seating arrangements for students to create their daily environment and also house career pathway programming for students. Specialty labs are sprinkled throughout the building. ��

“The new Learning Studios, collaborative areas and dynamic seating options reflect a forward-thinking vision for how education can adapt to meet the needs of every student,” said Paul Aplikowski, partner at Wold Architects. “This school stands as a testament to the community’s commitment to fostering innovation, engagement and lifelong learning, and we are honored to have played a role in bringing that vision to life.”��

Athletics and physical fitness were heavily considered in the campus design, with the addition of multiple artificial turf athletic fields, tennis and basketball courts, and a 5,500-seat stadium with a ten-lane track. A five-station athletics field house with a 200-meter track sits to the side. Nearby, a student commons area was created for dining and learning to further unify the various grades. ��

A new 845-seat Performing Arts Center was the last campus addition. Inside the auditorium, Commercial Drywall Inc. installed curved walls and suspended sound clouds to ensure volume levels and sound remains controlled and pristine.��

Located near a residential area, the campus includes designated areas for vehicle traffic to maximize space and comply with Central Middle School, which shares the transportation area. ��

Sustainable Planning����

While the outdated facility was upgraded with modern amenities and spaces, the foundation and history of the building were kept intact, supporting sustainability by eliminating the need to completely tear down and rebuild. Several other intentional sustainability initiatives — focused on energy efficiency, waste reduction, recycling, water conservation — were considered throughout the planning and construction phases to maintain the district’s green goals. ��

“During the design process, we made construction decisions that would drive purposeful changes in our learning practices,” said Kazmierczak. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that the benefits we anticipated are truly being realized. Student feedback about the new spaces consistently highlights aspects we identified as best-case outcomes during planning and decision making. These future-focused spaces are meeting the needs of our current students and will continue to do so for decades to come.”��

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OWATONNA, Minn.—A $99 million high school has been realized in this town located approximately 70 miles south of the Twin Cities. Construction commenced in May 2021 on the three-story school, whose campus also includes a football stadium, tennis courts, physical education building, auditorium, “town square” and outdoor athletic fields. Companies such as Federated Insurance and Mayo Clinic Health System contributed funds to the project.

The 317,000-square-foot Owatonna High School, located at 1455 SE 18th St., was designed by Wold Architects and Engineers to hold 1,600 students. Their design includes industrial arts laboratories and tech shop classrooms, as well as a centrally located cafeteria. Among the types of career paths students can learn about at Owatonna High are nursing, publishing and digital media, culinary arts, and engineering. By offering career-education classes, the local Owatonna community is hoping to retain skilled workers upon graduation rather than lose them to larger cities.

“Following years of working alongside many incredible local businesses, partners, staff and students, we are thrilled to finally open Owatonna High School and watch our students excel,” Jeff Elstad, superintendent at Owatonna Public Schools, said of the new high school. “This school will help them foster a sense of community and ownership over their learning in an innovative and inspiring environment while serving as a source of excitement and pride for the city of Owatonna.”

Wold worked in concert with construction manager Kraus-Anderson to realize the project. The two firms collaborated to fashion a school built of precast concrete and structural steel. The facade comprises brick and metal panels as well as glazing that allows in as much natural light as feasible. Architectural flourishes on the interior include terrazzo flooring, hardwood and metal panels covering the column wraps, as well as prefinished interior panels within the auditorium.

The exterior of Owatonna High includes four athletic storage buildings as well as a parking lot that can hold nearly 1,000 vehicles.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the district and local voices to create a school that reflects the community it serves,” said Paul Aplikowski, partner at Wold. “We are excited to see how this school realizes the district’s vision for education for many years to come and becomes a role model for the area in high school education.”

“Owatonna Public Schools has been a fantastic partner during the entire construction process, where close communication and coordination was needed to meet all expectations,” said Michael Stenbeck, KA’s project manager. “It has been amazing to witness jaws drop as students and the community walk into the new facility. We are so proud to be a part of this project.”

Stenbeck added that managing ongoing supply chain issues was an issue for the project. “We maintained close communications and collaboration with all of our partners and subs to manage delivery expectations,” he said in an email sent to �鶹������.

“One of the most rewarding parts of this project was seeing the Owatonna community rally together to turn the dream of a new high school into reality,” Sal Bagley, partner at Wold, informed �鶹������. “From the successful [bond referendum] to the unprecedented support from local businesses in the form of donations and programming involvement, the full community truly inspired the unique and reflective design of this landmark school.”

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ROSEAU, Minn.—Construction management and real estate development firm Kraus-Anderson has finished the second phase of its $43 million renovation project at the Roseau Community Schools in Roseau. The 141,000-square-foot work commenced in July 2020.

The renovations, which were designed by JLG Architects, encompass renovating and expanding the K-12 school, entailing 81,000 square feet of ground-up construction as well as renovating an extra 60,000 square feet of educational space. Phase 1 work entailed most of the remodeling, while Phase 2 work included 16,416 square feet of new construction and redesign. Among the new classrooms completed by Kraus-Anderson and JLG are areas for Career and Technical Education (CTE), band and choir rooms, and administrative spaces. The builders also enlarged the gym areas.

The work also called for updating the HVAC system and making improvements to accord with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). From a safety perspective, the contractors also made improvements to the fire system, applied a more secure front entrance, as well as designed a renovated pickup and drop-off area entailing a circular driveway.

“The project impacted every area of curriculum and teaching within our high school….every area,” said Tom Jerome, district superintendent. “From math and science to music and special education, no part went untouched. Natural light was also an emphasis, conference rooms were added, and even our hallways have been transformed into flexible learning spaces, no longer just serving as passageways for our students. We could not be more excited!”

Kraus-Anderson is based in Minneapolis, with additional regional offices throughout the Upper Midwest.

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LE SUEUR, Minn.—Construction management and real estate development firm Kraus-Anderson, a major player in the Upper Midwest, has commenced $40.4 million’ worth of work on a new elementary school for Le Sueur-Henderson Public Schools.�� Le Sueur-Henderson Elementary School will sit adjacent to the existing high school.

As designed by ATS&R Planners, Architects and Engineers, the two-story, 113,090-square-foot school will be a learning community for children from kindergarten through the 5th grade.�� In addition to classrooms, administration spaces and a nurse’s area, the elementary school will offer music classrooms and a “Kid’s Club.”�� For sports and physical education, Le Sueur-Henderson will have a 30,000-square-foot field house featuring a three-court gymnasium.�� Outdoor dedicated playgrounds are part of the design as well.

Safety features include a 6,000-square-foot storm shelter as well as a secure main entryway.

Voters approved funding for the elementary school in a referendum last summer.�� Construction is anticipated to be complete by next August.

“The new school will bring 21^st century learning and opportunities to the next generation of Le Sueur and Henderson area students,” Shane Butler, KA’s senior project manager, said of the work.

Kraus-Anderson, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, has offices throughout Minnesota and also North Dakota.

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MARION, N.D.—Renovations are underway at Litchville-Marion School District courtesy of General contractor Kraus-Anderson. The $12.6-million project in east North Dakota will meld an older high school and a newer elementary school into one facility to educate students from pre-K through 12th grade.

As designed by Ciavarella Design Architects, the redesigned school will combine 37,000 square feet and 17,300 square feet of previously existing educational space. The new space will contain a kitchen, daycare, locker rooms, multipurpose room and 11 new classrooms.

Meanwhile, the original school building, first constructed in 1925, will be demolished to make room at the jobsite for the expanded school.

The work is expected to be completed for the fall of 2024. Classes will continue at Litchville-Marion meanwhile.

In a statement, Mike Barsness, senior project manager for Kraus-Anderson, said the company will work to “keep life as normal as possible for the school district and yet provide an efficient and well-run job site for subcontractors so the project gets built properly and on schedule and in a manner where everyone can succeed.”

Kraus-Anderson was founded in 1897. They are ranked the 20th largest K-12 contractor in the country by Building Design and Construction magazine. Within the past half-decade alone, the firm has completed over $1 billion in educational construction work.

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LADYSMITH, Wis.—Minneapolis-based general contractor Kraus-Anderson is embarking on a $21 million renovation for the School District of Ladysmith. The project entails renovations at the district’s middle and high schools, both imagined by designer Bray Architects.

Among the additions being undertaken are remodeling 22,000 square feet of classrooms and a 10,000-square-foot gym expansion. New construction entails a 3,000-square-foot media center add-on.

In addition, Kraus-Anderson’s Madison offices will be updating the buildings’ systems and security features, as well as bringing the two schools into ADA compliance. The contractor will also be installing a new roof, fashioning new parking lots and redesigning the athletic facilities, including new bleachers for the football stadium and new dugout for the softball field.

John Huenink, Kraus-Anderson’s vice president and director of education construction, said that his firm worked alongside the Ladysmith district in crafting an information campaign to successfully pass a bond in order to help fund the construction projects needed throughout the district.

“In 2021, KA completed an educational adequacy and facility study, along with facilitating a community task force to help build the district’s referendum plan,” said Huenink.

The various renovations are due for completion next summer.

Kraus-Anderson, founded in 1897, has been ranked the 20th largest builder of K-12 facilities in the nation by Building Design and Construction magazine, with $1 million in such work in the last half-decade alone. In addition to its Twin Cities headquarters, the firm operates from Upper Midwest branch offices in Madison, Milwaukee, Duluth, Bismarck and others.

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LAKEFIELD, Minn.—Kraus-Anderson has finished up its work for the Jackson County Central Schools District on a new-build middle school and an elementary school renovation.

The $26 million, 84,000-square-foot Jackson County Central Middle School, designed by JLG Architects, entails new classrooms, kitchens, common areas, technology classrooms, music education areas, as well as a gymnasium. Construction commenced in March of 2021.

Kraus-Anderson has also finished renovating the adjacent Pleasantview Elementary School. The contractor’s work at the elementary school entailed air quality upgrades and necessary improvements to be in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

Both projects were funded thanks to a $35.4 million bond referendum that was passed by voters in November 2019 in order to meet upgrades throughout the district. The new technical classrooms are also meant to help students as they prepare for careers beyond the post-secondary educational paradigm.

Kraus-Anderson project manager Dustin Kempf spoke with �鶹������ recently about the construction. Among the early issues, he said, was that when the project went out for bid in late 2020, contractors were “a little bit more hungry” for work, but the industry still hadn’t quite figured out how to operate as the covid-19 pandemic continued.

“It was fighting our way back from that,” Kempf said. The next big hurdle Kempf related was that the subcontractor that was scheduled to fabricate steel for the school’s construction suddenly went out of business.

“The day it was scheduled to get installed, we got a notice [that] their doors closed—and we found out they did not fabricate any of the steel,” he recalled. “Before we even had a chance to set the steel, we were already three to five months behind. We actually had to sub it out…knowing construction rebidding the job out can take four to six weeks, and that’s the best-case scenario.”

Kraus-Anderson was eventually able to source the necessary steel for the construction.

“The design company that we were working with for the steel, we kept them on because the fabricators subbed out the design part of it,” Kempf said. “The in-house engineering firm was…probably a 10- or 12-hour time difference…so most of our conversations had to be [done] very early in the [morning].”

Kempf added that the initial fire protection contractor also went into default, as did a tile contractor, requiring yet more rebids for subcontractors. All told, he believes the various delays resulted in the work being six months behind schedule. Nevertheless, his firm was able to get it all completed.

“We still feel supply chain issues,” he said. “I have to believe it’s going to improve. I don’t think there’s any way it can be sustained.”

Kraus-Anderson was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Minneapolis.

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VIRGINIA, Minn.—Construction manager Kraus-Anderson’s Duluth office has successfully delivered the new Rock Ridge Career Academy High School for the Rock Ridge Public Schools. The $190 million project, which commenced construction in August 2020, also entailed demolition of prior buildings that stood on the site in the town of Virginia, Minn.

The physical Rock Ridge Academy itself, which cost $122 million, encompasses 280,000 square feet of educational space designed to help students train for potential future careers. The school is partnering with local businesses and other organizations to expose students to career options, and programs offered onsite include business management, health and human services, agriculture, engineering, and sciences.

Kraus-Anderson worked with designers Cuningham Group Architecture and local designer DSGW Architects to maximize the amount of natural light for the school’s interior. The design aesthetic features an open main commons, laboratories, as well as rooms for courses in carpentry, automotive, nursing and culinary arts. The school also features a modern gymnasium, pool and performing arts center. Local timber was used in the construction.

Outdoors, the academy will host five athletic fields and a new stadium featuring a press box, grandstands and a running track.

In a recent phone conversation, Kraus-Anderson project manager Paul Noll said that due to the 30-month construction timeline, his firm had to not only deal with covid-19 protocols, but also issues with the supply chain.

“We made all sorts of extra storage room available…to accept delivery of materials earlier than we typically would during a construction process to allow for those months and months and months of delays that other projects were experiencing,” Noll said. “That’s not something we would typically do on a project, but it worked fantastically on this job.”

Taking this path allowed KA to complete the construction of the academy on schedule. And being flexible was crucial at the jobsite as the team awaited certain materials to show up.

Rock Ridge Academy is the only school north of the Twin Cities devoted specifically to career training. Noll calls such an educational model “revolutionary” in this far northern area of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Furthermore, it will be important to have an educated technical workforce on hand in the area, rather than having them flee to the big cities.

“The region is very community-focused and family-focused, and there are a lot of different opportunities that the career academy highlights that show students there are many different pathways they can take forward in their life that will lead to success,” said Noll.

At a recent celebration for the academy’s opening, Dr. Noel Schmidt, superintendent of Rock Ridge Public Schools, echoed what Noll said about the need to keep talented people within the community.

“Rock Ridge High School…was specifically designed for both direct instruction and project-based learning to flourish as teaching and learning tools in a career academy structure for all students,” Schmidt said. “It is no hyperbole to say that the community, teachers, and students can be proud of this extraordinary high school which will be the envy of many districts throughout the State of Minnesota and United States. It is that unique.”

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ELY, Minn.—Architectural Resources, Inc. was tasked by Ely Public Schools to redesign aspects of the district’s Ely Memorial High School and Washington Elementary. Construction management and real estate development firm Kraus-Anderson recently completed the renovations required by the district, and personnel from the firm were anxious to discuss their work there.

The $21.43 million, 110,500-square-foot project at the two schools encompassed renovation of 71,000 square feet of existing space. The redesigned areas will now be home to a gym, music room, metal and wood shops, cafeteria, media center, and career and technical education (CTE) classrooms. The contractor has also added new locker rooms at the high school as well as an Early Family Childhood Education (ECFE) area at the elementary school. Both the high school and elementary school feature upgraded HVAC systems as well. Kraus-Anderson also installed a 40,000-square-foot commons that connects the elementary and high schools.

On the exterior, the builders demolished several older buildings, relocated a gas tank and vaporizer, and conducted other site improvements. However, perhaps the largest challenge outside the school buildings themselves was the blasting and removal of nearly 2,000 cubic yards of ledge rock, which had to be remediated before new utility lines could be installed.

Todd Erickson, Kraus-Anderson’s senior project manager, told �鶹������ in a recent interview that the rock outcropping was discovered during the “summer push” as the contractor expedited getting as much work done as possible before the winter freeze.

“Blasting and excavating 1,700 cubic yards of rock to enable the placement of sewer and stormwater service was a definite budget hiccup—and a schedule concern,” Erickson said.

He added this was all on top of covid-19 issues as well as ongoing supply chain problems, particularly when it came to sourcing door frames. An anticipated 16 weeks for delivery turned into 18 months for the frames—and seven months for the overhead doors themselves to show up.

“We started submittals in May of 2021, got through submittals and finalized the door orders, and they actually got installed in June of 2022.”

Erickson added that despite the rather remote location of Ely, in far northeastern Minnesota, the community he and his firm worked in was close-knit. Furthermore, he said that the area around the school has been designated largely for canoes, rendering it rather quiet.

“It’s a very serene environment and it’s quite a getaway,” said Erickson, before adding that the winter months can be absolutely punishing. “We’re over 70 inches of snow already so far this winter season. We had 44.9 inches in December alone.”

Kraus-Anderson reports over $1 billion in K-12 projects in the past half-decade. The firm offers facility analysis and budget services in its school construction division. Kraus-Anderson is based in Minneapolis but has other offices across the Upper Midwest.

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WHITE BEAR LAKE, Minn.—General contractor Kraus-Anderson has been hard at work on several educational projects for the White Bear Lake School District, located in the far northeastern suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The projects at the three schools, North Star Elementary, Birch Lake Elementary and Lakeaires Elementary, were all designed by Wold Architects and Engineers as parts of a long-range district improvement plan worth over $300 million, which is being funded thanks to a voter-approved school bond measure that was the largest in the state’s history.

North Star Elementary is a brand-new, 103,000-square-foot, two-story K-5 school, which came with a construction cost of nearly $29 million. North Star now offers a media center, cafeteria, conference rooms, modern classrooms as well as a storm shelter.

At Birch Lake Elementary, Wold and Kraus-Anderson expanded the campus by adding $3.6 million worth of classrooms, offices, an asphalt playground, as well as renovations to existing office space, lounges and common areas. Security and safety were also updated at Birch Lake.

Finally, the contractor and architect worked jointly on a 5,149-square-foot addition at Lakeaires Elementary that encompasses kitchen amenities, a new media center, and also renovations to the existing restrooms and learning commons. The cost for work at Lakeaires was $1.8 million.

Kraus-Anderson previously performed renovation work for the White Bear Lake School District that included six other projects, including work at Sunrise Middle School, Matoska International, and Lincoln, Vadnais Heights and Willow Lane Elementary Schools, as well as a district transportation building. The contractor will continue its work with the district, which is anticipated to run into the 2024-25 school year at the earliest.

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