Kraus-Anderson Construction Company has begun construction of the new $12 million Maslowski Wellness and Research Center in Wadena, Minn. The facility will combine a community center and swimming pool, both of which were destroyed by the category E4 tornado that wiped out 20 city blocks of Wadena, Minn., on June 17, 2010.
The 52,500-square-foot wellness center will include a gymnasium, indoor swimming pool, therapy pool, fitness center, racquetball courts and community meeting spaces. Designed by Minneapolis-based Steve Miller Architects, the two-story facility is expected to be completed in the fall of 2014.
This regional wellness center is an approach to centralizing and sharing community recreational resources by replacing the Wadena Community Center and City Swimming Pool in a single structure that shares an adjacent site to the new Wadena-Deer Creek Middle/High School, which was also destroyed by the tornado. Kraus-Anderson rebuilt the school, which opened Sept. 4, 2012, and houses 800 students in grades 5-12.