By Eric Althoff
OWATONNA, Minn.鈥擜 $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, 鈥渢own square鈥� 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.
鈥淔ollowing 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,鈥� Jeff Elstad, superintendent at Owatonna Public Schools, said of the new high school. 鈥淭his 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.鈥�
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.
鈥淲e鈥檙e grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the district and local voices to create a school that reflects the community it serves,鈥� said Paul Aplikowski, partner at Wold. 鈥淲e are excited to see how this school realizes the district鈥檚 vision for education for many years to come and becomes a role model for the area in high school education.鈥�
鈥淥watonna Public Schools has been a fantastic partner during the entire construction process, where close communication and coordination was needed to meet all expectations,鈥� said Michael Stenbeck, KA鈥檚 project manager. 鈥淚t 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.鈥�
Stenbeck added that managing ongoing supply chain issues was an issue for the project. 鈥淲e maintained close communications and collaboration with all of our partners and subs to manage delivery expectations,鈥� he said in an email sent to 杏吧原版視頻.
鈥淥ne 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,鈥� Sal Bagley, partner at Wold, informed 杏吧原版視頻. 鈥淔rom 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.鈥�