The City of Minot experienced a catastrophic flood in the summer of 2011. Thousands of homes, schools, and businesses were damaged or destroyed. One of the impacted schools was Eric Ramstad Middle School located in north Minot. Federal and local officials determined that the school was a total loss and would need to be replaced. Minot Public Schools officials located a new parcel of land well outside of the plane to ensure the school would not be impacted by any future flooding. The new building was 128,000 square feet with a project cost of $28million. Funding for the replacement school was provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the State of North Dakota.

 

Critical to the project was fast tracking the design/construction to replace the school that was lost during the flood. A key factor in the shortened project timeline was the use of precast concrete elements. Within 65 working days, the school was fully enclosed. The project was completed on a 16-month construction cycle from groundbreaking to school opening. Advantages to the use of precast wall and roof panels include extreme performance in energy efficiency, durability and low maintenance, and strength. The architectural design team’s goal was to create an aesthetic contrast to the exterior design which was achieved with one mix design and three different treatments that included water wash, sandblast, and acid etch finishes.

 

Ackerman-Estvold architecture team members designed the new facility that houses grades six through eight with 2 sections per grade level.

 

Space was designed for:

Classrooms for Reading, Language, Arts, Social Studies, Math for each section

Teacher planning and small group instruction

Team resource

Science labs with adjacent prep rooms

Art Room with storage and kiln

Family and consumer sciences

Technology labs (2)

Band room

Choral room

Music practice rooms (2)

Special Ed (2) with resource and offices

Administration offices

Secured access main entrance

Offices for Principal, Assistant Principal, Counselor

Media center with computer lab/resource center and support areas

Cafeteria/stage with kitchen

Gymnasium and locker rooms with 2 section capability

Weights/fitness room

Pool

Multi-use bathrooms

Custodial and miscellaneous accessory spaces

 

The civil engineering site design was also completed by Ackerman-Estvold team members and included softball fields (2), with football/soccer practice field overlapping outfields, 400 meter track around the football/soccer field, paved parking, and student drop off/pick up drive.