Throwback Thursday: Headquarters 1974

Construction on Basin Electric’s headquarters building began in 1974.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In 2017, Basin Electric completed a 91,000-square-foot expansion of its headquarters building, a step forward in supporting the future of the cooperative’s workforce. The project allows employees that were housed in multiple locations to be moved under one roof, as well as allocating for future growth.

Some 43 years ago, Basin Electric was in a similar situation when it built the original headquarters building. Read more in this excerpt from Basin Electric’s commemorative 25^th anniversary book “Power for the Plains”:

The year 1974 was the beginning of a period that would see Basin Electric grow substantially in its regional power supply responsibilities and in the staff required to oversee a high level of development.

 Construction began that year on a new 60,800-square-foot headquarters building in Bismarck, ND, to accommodate a growing staff that was scattered in several sites throughout the city.

The headquarters building in Bismarck received special attention because of a design that took advantage of energy conservation. The building was designed to be built into a hill with windows facing southeast to take advantage of natural sunlight.

Read more about Basin Electric’s history on its website, in “Power for the Plains,” or in its 50^th anniversary book, “Generation for Generations.”

You can order Generation for Generations at basinelectric.com, or download a PDF: Generation for Generations.

Dennis Lindberg, then-secretary-treasurer of Basin Electric’s board of directors, at the headquarters site dedication in 1974. Lindberg was also one of Basin Electric’s original incorporators.

The original headquarters building had four floors. The fifth and sixth floors were added in the late 1970s. In addition, 5,000 feet of solar collector plates for a supplemental solar heating system (pictured to the left of the building) were installed in 1977. This was a joint demonstration project with the federal Energy Research and Development Administration providing 90 percent of the costs.