Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Minn. District Consolidates All Students into One Facility

  • By Matt Jones
  • 09/24/21

Construction company Kraus-Anderson recently announced the completion of a $30-million elementary school in Pipestone, Minn. The facility is an addition to the district’s existing middle and high school building, meaning that the full facility will house all of the district’s 1,150 public school students. About 500 elementary school students had previously been split between two outdated buildings, according to a press release.

The elementary school addition covers 85,940 square feet and serves students in grades preK–5. The two-story facility features amenities like a central visitor entrance for security reasons, a renovated and expanded kitchen and cafeteria, a new gymnasium, flex learning areas, and administration offices. Kraus-Anderson and the school district partnered with ISG Architects for the design process.

Other design features include flexible classroom seating and tables with adjustable heights; tables that students can write on; one flexible learning space per floor, and sensory rooms with adjustable lighting and special equipment.

Voters approved the district bond referendum project in 2019.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • S4L Announces 2026 Education Design Showcase Winners

    Spaces4Learning is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2026 Education Design Showcase! Now in its 27th year, the annual awards program honors innovative solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction across K–12 and higher education.

  • Porter Family Center

    Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The Porter Family Center for Innovation and Academics has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of New Construction.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • University of Kansas Breaks Ground on Entrepreneurship Hub

    The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new KU Entrepreneurship Hub, according to university news. The Hub is part of the university’s School of Business and will include spaces for experiential learning and programming.