Knutson Construction

Owner:

Rochester Public Schools

Architect:

LHB Inc. & CRW Architects

Scope Of Work

Dakota Middle School is the largest of 4 schools Knutson Construction is building for the Rochester Public School District as part of a $180.5 million referendum.

This project was $56 million dollars of the overall referendum budget and is a 175,866 square foot building at the NW edge of Rochester on a 30-acre parcel of land that overlooks the downtown skyline. The building includes 3 levels of classrooms, media center, residential and commercial teaching kitchen, group learn spaces, 500 seat auditorium, music wing with band orchestra and choir rooms, fitness room, locker rooms, and 3 gymnasiums (two are combined for the storm shelter capable of withstanding winds up to 250mph).

This 18-month project was recently awarded OSHA’s MNSHARP award and was turned over to the owner early June. Knutson was the CMa on the project with LHB as the main architect. This project was built on a green site which has glacial till below the top soil making for a very challenging excavation, utility install, and backfill being as this glacial till is so dense and hard to dig but would also turn to slime if it ever rained. The earthwork was one of many challenges the project faced however the largest and most impactful challenge was product procurement. Through early award and approvals, constant check-ins with suppliers, and creative workarounds on site keeping crews busy and efficient we were able to stay on schedule and hit our originally planned temporary certificate of occupancy date.