Hidden River Middle School is back in business, and it is looking a lot less like a century-old workhorse and a lot more like a 21st-century campus. Students have returned to refreshed classrooms, a clearly marked and more secure main entry, and upgraded building systems after a major renovation and addition. While crews were busy on site, the school community temporarily shifted over to Wilson School, which also picked up some interior upgrades along the way.
Project Completion And Partners
According to Spaces4Learning, St. Paul Public Schools wrapped a $49.7 million addition and remodeling effort that covered work at both Hidden River and Wilson, with construction finishing in December 2025. The outlet reports that the district tapped DLR Group to lead design and brought in Kraus-Anderson as the construction partner.
What The Work Included
On its project page, Saint Paul Public Schools details just how extensive the overhaul was. The district says the team remodeled nearly 98,500 square feet of interior space and added about 10,800 square feet. The work created a clearer and more secure main entrance, new administrative offices, updated classrooms, and an expanded kitchen, along with upgraded AV, HVAC, and electrical systems. The project also introduced inclusive restrooms and a partial roof replacement. Students moved back into the revamped building on January 5, 2026, and the district officially cut the ribbon on February 10, 2026.
Design, Builders And Timeline
Kraus-Anderson announced in July 2024 that it would manage construction for the combined Hidden River and Wilson effort, listing the overall construction contract at roughly $40.2 million and naming the sites at 1700 Summit Ave. and 631 Albert St. N., according to Kraus-Anderson. DLR Group served as the design partner on the job. The contractor also noted that shifting students and staff to Wilson during construction was intended to speed up the schedule.
Sustainability And Geothermal System
The district leaned into efficiency upgrades instead of just swapping out old boilers for new ones. The project installed a geoexchange heating and cooling system that taps into an aquifer below the site, along with landscaping that uses native, drought-resistant plants. Ken Francois, a Kraus-Anderson project manager, told Finance & Commerce that the geothermal approach will “utilize the underground river that flows below the building for heating and cooling,” a fitting twist for a school named Hidden River. The district's project materials further outline the geoexchange system and other efficiency-focused improvements.
Why It Matters
The Hidden River work is part of a broader St. Paul Public Schools push to modernize buildings that in many cases date back to the 1920s and need substantial system upgrades to meet current safety and energy standards. Reporting and district documents do not always land on the same final price tag, and there is a reason for that. MinnPost and district materials cited a $54.2 million budget, Kraus-Anderson put the construction contract at about $40.2 million, and industry coverage from Spaces4Learning listed a roughly $49.7 million completed cost. Those figures reflect different stages of the project, from overall budget to contract amount to published completed-project estimates, and together they sketch out the scale of investment it took to bring this nearly century-old middle school into the present.
