Southwest exterior of the planned Minnesota Public Radio headquarters expansion [enlarge and view slide show]

Minnesota Public Radio is about to embark on a major construction project—a new headquarters in St. Paul that will more than double existing space, unite employees under one roof and house new technology, public space and production facilities.

The Board of Trustees has given the green light to begin work on the project, which will redesign and expand Minnesota Public Radio's main building at East Seventh and Cedar Streets in downtown St. Paul.

"A new facility will promote efficiency and productivity, and allow us to make groundbreaking innovations in journalism, music, arts and culture," says Tad Piper, a Board of Trustees member who is heading up a $46 million capital campaign for Minnesota Public Radio.

The capital campaign, which will be launched publicly in late June, will raise money for the $41 million building project. Early funding has come from a variety of private donors as well as the City of St. Paul, The Saint Paul Foundation, the F.R. Bigelow Foundation, the Katherine B. Andersen Fund and the Mardag Foundation. The remaining $5 million raised by the capital campaign will fund initiatives to enhance news coverage, expand arts and cultural programming and create a comprehensive digital audio archive.

At present, about 300 employees operate out of three overcrowded locations in downtown St. Paul. Collaboration is difficult and facilities are inadequate to support Minnesota Public Radio's ambitious goals for improving service to the community and listeners.

"As sound as our programming is, it needs to be even better if we are to continue to raise the quality of life for people in Minnesota and around the country," says President and CEO Bill Kling. "We can only do this by providing our talented staff with updated studios, technical equipment and production facilities, by bringing them together in a single facility, and by enabling them to interact in new ways with knowledgeable members of our audience."

The new 120,000-square-foot building, designed by acclaimed Twin Cities architectural firm HGA, will offer eight new studios, more public space, a digital archive facility and multimedia conference rooms. The interior space will promote interaction and communication through the open design of an atrium, balconies, stair landings and bridges.

The building will be part of a campus that will include The Fitzgerald Theater on Exchange Street (which Minnesota Public Radio owns) and a triangular plaza on Cedar Street. A Minnesota Public Radio building at 480 Cedar Street, one block north of the main building, will be demolished, and Ninth Street, which lies between the two, will be vacated. A pocket garden just north of the new facility will be open to the public.

The project is scheduled to be completed by summer 2006.