Designed for Safety

A look at what some upper Midwest architecture and engineering companies are doing to build safer schools and businesses

By Andrew Weeks | Prairie Business Editor

After gunshots were reported at Columbine High School in 1999 in Littleton, Colo., Don Moseman was one of many law enforcement officers called to the scene.

It was the first school shooting that Moseman responded to, but it would not be the last. He responded to another school shooting and workplace shooting before retiring from law enforcement. His heart breaks, as does the heart of a country, every time he hears of another mass shooting. When will such senseless tragedy end?

Moseman, who now lives in North Dakota, knows he cannot passively wait for an answer that likely will never come, and so he is proactively doing what he can to bring more awareness to people about what they can do to protect themselves and those around them.

As a master instructor with the North Dakota Safety Council in Bismarck, he leads safety initiatives and the training of his team. But there’s another way he is trying to help: by partnering with a North Dakota-based architecture and engineering company.

Creating Safer Buildings

EAPC Architects Engineers, based in Grand Forks, N.D., but which has offices in several upper Midwest locations as well as in Fort Collins, Colo., and Phoenix, Ariz., works with many different businesses and organizations, but through its Design for School Safety initiative one of its priorities is partnering with school districts in an effort to make buildings more safe in the event of an active shooter.

It’s an effort that seems to be trending across the architectural landscape, as other firms also are doing their part to make buildings safer.

Partnering with the North Dakota Safety Council, EAPC’s initiative focuses on educating school administrators and staff about how design considerations can bring added safety to their schools. Several educational workshops about the company’s initiative have been held at schools, according to marketing director Lori Bakken, and additional presentations have been given to business professionals.

The initiative started about two years ago when Fargo-based senior architect Sean Sugden approached a member of his church’s safety team who happened also to be on the Safety Council. He said he wanted to toss around ideas about what could be done from an architectural standpoint to make the building more safe. That discussion turned into one about schools and businesses.

“I was just wondering what we could proactively do as architects to make sure that our schools are safer for students and staff and not vulnerable to events that may happen,” he said.

The company is starting to see the fruits of the initiative with new, safer schools that the company designed in Williston, N.D., and Bemidji, Minn.

Before each of the schools were finished, Sugden invited the Safety Council to tour the buildings and give its input and recommendations.

Enter Moseman, who during a walk-through of the Williston building critiqued the school with a 95% ranking. He offered some additional suggestions, however, and school administrators were invited to tour the building next so they could physically see what Moseman had recommended.

Sugden said it’s important to get the perspective and input from professionals outside of architecture.

“I know design but I don’t necessarily look at architecture from continued on page 14