Kraus-Anderson begins construction on new Polytechnic Education Center at Bismarck State

North Dakota

By Sydney Mook

BISMARCK, N.D. - Work has begun on the only polytechnic education facility in the region.

Kraus-Anderson recently began construction on a new $35 million Polytechnic Education Center at Bismarck State College located at 1601 Edwards Ave. in Bismarck, N.D., the company announced. The building is the only polytechnic education facility in the region.

The 89,486-square-foot, state-of-the-art polytechnic center, which was designed by ICON Architectural Group, will feature project-based learning and nontraditional, hands-on collaborative working environments, Kraus-Anderson announced in a press release. The building will include two flex labs where business and industry can partner on developing projects and ideas; and provide space for operating and expanding new academic programming and equipment as well as advancing applied research.

The building, once completed, will be three stories and is set to have a skywalk connect to the Bismarck State College National Energy Center of Excellence. It will also house a live event venue, a digital hive and a security operations center (SOC) as well as other state-of-the-art learning environments, Kraus-Anderson said in the release.

“North Dakota has tremendous natural assets that support economic growth in our state,“ says BSC President Doug Jensen. “The decision to invest in our polytechnic mission aligns perfectly with the state’s economic growth projects.”

Gov. Doug Burgum has previously said the center will be of critical importance in helping North Dakota meet its workforce needs. State lawmakers approved and Burgum signed legislation in 2021 providing

- BSC PRESIDENT, DOUG JENSEN

$38 million for the BSC Polytechnic Education Center.

“Education has to be more responsive to workforce needs and more responsive to the signals from the private sector,” Burgum said during a 2021 press conference at BSC’s National Energy Center of Excellence. “This is far more than just a new building. This is a new pathway for higher education in North Dakota.” continued from page 21 that are subject to sales tax,” he said. “So we’re seeing tremendous growth in sales tax and individual income tax, (and) individual income tax has a strong correlation to oil price” in a state so close to the oil industry.

The Polytechnic Education Center is expected to be completed in winter of 2024.

“In (budgetary) requests, we certainly saw agencies prioritizing salaries, and knowing that they’re in a incredibly competitive labor market,” Morrissette said of the recent beginning of the ongoing budgeting cycle, which will set funding from mid-2023 to mid-2025 for the state.

And just like city halls and statehouses, tourism bureaus have been profoundly affected by the eddies and currents of local economies, too – and their leaders have watched the same recent changes with a lot of interest. Julie Rygg, the executive director of Grand Forks’ tourism bureau, is optimistic about the future – she sees the community on a long trend upwards from the depths of the pandemic. But there are certain indicators that still need to fully recover, like Canadian border crossings, which she said were still down in October 2022 from three years before.

“Like a number of border cities, we rely so much on that Canadian travel,” Rygg said, and pointed out that a lot of visitation is closely tied to the value of currency. “I keep saying, that Canadian dollar improves — we’d be loving life right now.”

That means that, while there’s economic headwinds, leaders are plotting their next moves carefully.

“Durability is a theme I kept coming back to over and over in 2022. It’s going to guide us in 2023. We’ve got to be durable in our personnel model and in our budget model,” Redlinger said.

Tylden Kossan

Northland Community & Technical College

Major: Architectural Technology and Design

Graduation: May 2023

Career path: Architecture design or construction management

“It reinvigorated my love of architecture and design and the engineering behind everything.