Mississippi Horizons Technology Magnet School

Brainerd, Minnesota

Firm

Widseth Smith Nolting and Associates, Inc.

Client

Independent School District 181

Area

115,700 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$4,000,000

Completion Date

07/1997

The Brainerd School District had the opportunity to remodel the old Technical College, only a stone`s throw from the Mississippi River, into a facility that would relieve middle school overcrowding. The 1960’s vintage building had been through seven additions and five major remodels, resulting in a circulation pattern resembling a maze.
The district took advantage of the opportunity by creating a Technology Magnet School, designed around a technology-based method of delivery for traditional curriculum. Students make regular use of technology tools for research, critical thinking, creative production and worldwide communication.
Classrooms were expanded to allow for hands-on group activities, as well as traditional lecture space. Angled walls with cutouts divide the room visually while retaining sight lines, and serve to convey computer and power lines to workstation level without trenching the concrete floor.
With few windows, bringing light and opening up space into the building was a priority. The new entry with its east-facing clerestory windows and glass walls floods the interior with light. The media center is organized around existing skylights that focus on the center computer workstations.

Photographer: ©Franz Hall