Building a legacy

By Andrew Weeks

Aproject at Valley City State University that has been discussed and planned for the past decade is finally seeing results. By the end of year the project will have come to fruition and the university will have a new Center for the Arts, a 56,000-squarefoot facility that, according to the experts at JE Dunn Construction, will be the envy of many.

Construction started on the new center last July, and its planned completion this coming December is something Marc Mellmer, vice president of JE Dunn Construction, is excited about.

“The purpose for the project is twofold,” he said: It grows the arts and music program at the school, and it puts the center on the correct side of the flood wall. He said when the Army Corps of Engineers completed the diversion project in town years ago the now-former arts and music building wound up on the wrong side of the flood wall.

The new facility, built inside the flood wall, is a $32 million project. Mellmer said the building is much different than those often built in high schools in that this is a state-of-the-art center with a high-level of acoustics and other notable features.

“It’s so far from a concert hall that would be in a high school auditorium,” he said. “It’s not even close. The acoustics level, the outside area handling the equipment, it’s all way, way, way different.”

The building will house a 350-seat performance hall, 100-seat choral room, 200 square-feet of band rehearsal space, and include recording studio suites, a music library, and a number of practice studios. Other features include an art gallery, ceramics studio, designated space for woodworking, and flex studio art spaces.

Matthew Ecklund, project manager with JE Dunn Construction, said the building will incorporate a lot of natural colors and patterns and will have a brick and earth-tone look to it.

Ecklund said something his team likes to do is find the “why” behind any project they work on.

“What is our purpose? Why are we here doing this project?” he said, explaining the why behind this project was formulated early in the design phase to “establish VCSU as a premier destination to train artists.”

Another project JE Dunn Construction is excited about is the new Track and Football Stadium underway at the University of Jamestown. The stadium is an $11.5 million project that is privately funded. It will feature a 4,500 square-foot pressbox, suite and concessions building, 1,500-seat grandstand, an 80,000 square-foot turf football field, and a nine-lane running track.

Construction on the track and stadium started last October and is on track – pun intended – to be completed sometime in September.

Ecklund said the “why” behind this project is to provide a state-ofthe-art track and stadium venue for generations of students.

He said it includes a partnership between Jamestown Public Schools, which also is a beneficiary of the project, and the University of Jamestown.

“A part of this project actually puts the turf practice field up at Jamestown Public Schools, and then both teams will use the stadium for football,” he said.

A natural element is that there is a natural bowl at the stadium site,