Reports may end housing crunch

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

July 14, 1996

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

It has been said by Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development Commissioner Jay Novak that the second biggest setback to economic development for Minnesota businesses is a housing shortage. However, two reports compiled under the direction of a Bemidji State University professor may provide some helpful answers to the problem.

With a Blandin Foundation grant, architectural design professor James McCracken directed a group of university professors and student assistants culminating in the production of "Best Practices for Residential Design and Construction." BSU was later commissioned to produce an addendum to the original report, also.

The main report was completed sometime between the summer and fall of 1995, a Blandin representative said.

According to BSU President Jim Bensen, the report was really a study of getting the "optimal rural housing setting" without building an "outlandish" structure. He said the group studied both the design and construction of rural homes to determine what the best techniques and materials being used to build rural homes were.

"In one little booklet," he said, "you've got the latest and the best practices being taught."

Bensen said the report is more like a step-by-step guide to home building than anything else. The first report, divided into five chapters, discusses the pre-building thought process, such as site selection and property value issues, and even includes a graph as to how much a prospective home builder should spend on each aspect.

The other chapters concern site development, house designs, materials and systems and the building process itself. The addendum to the report discusses supplemental floor plans, cost estimates and employer-assisted housing practices.

"It's a very practical, very creative, very design-oriented and very leading-edge way of building a house," Bensen said.

The completed report was driven by a real-world problem, Bensen said. It was not produced just to evoke an interesting discussion but will be used to try to solve a housing shortage problem in Bigfork.

The original project idea was brought to BSU by the Blandin Foundation. In Bigfork, the Bergquist Manufacturing Co. was in a bind. The company had exploded, but there was no housing available to the many new employees need. Owner Carl Bergquist Sr., said he had to revert to offering a shuttle service out of Grand Rapids where employees could purchase housing, and in Bigfork some employees were living three to four to a trailer house.

Bergquist approached the Blandin Foundation and asked if they could help develop a solution to the problem. Bensen was asked by Blandin President Paul Olson to join the discussion, and that is how the project landed in the hands of a BSU professor.

Also assisting in the project were carpentry instructor Dale Balmer, Northwest Technical College-Bemidji; construction management professor Charles Gagel, BSU; architectural professor Peter Kramer, Dunwoody Institute; architectural professor Courtney Nystuen, University of Wisconsin-Stout; and a number of college students.

Bergquist said there was an attempt to build a house using the report as a model this summer but there were obstacles that came up. He said his company would try to build one next summer if the financing is available.

"They did a marvelous job," Bergquist said. "It is a great help to my employees. You can just pick up the two books and virtually complete a home."

He said financing homes was not a new idea for his company -- it has helped employees finance about 30 homes -- but his company has never before been involved in constructing a home. He said the project has developed a lot like the process Habitat for Humanity uses to build homes.

"We have long been aware that economic development is linked to affordable housing in rural Minnesota," said Mike Foster, Blandin communications director. "BSU just developed a handbook on how to build the best housing in northern Minnesota."