Division Headquarters
Overview
When the Minnesota Army National Guard built its Division Headquarters at the Arden Hills Army Training Site, Dimension Sign delivered the signage that defines the building — a 16-by-40-foot dimensional world map in waterjet-cut aluminum commanding the two-story atrium wall, the brushed stainless lettering on the Division Headquarters monument, the 34th Infantry's nine-by-twelve-foot red insignia set high on the facade, and dimensional letters from the Assembly Hall to the Auditorium. Every fabricator and installer on the project was security-screened, rostered, and badged — and the Guard has been ordering from us directly ever since.
01 / The challenge
A division headquarters is not a normal jobsite, and a 640-square-foot aluminum world is not a normal sign. The map had to be engineered from vector art into pieces that could survive fabrication, fit through a door, and go up a finished two-story lobby wall plumb and true — when a single 5-by-10-foot sheet of quarter-inch aluminum weighs 175 pounds. The facade insignia was bigger than the largest sheet we could buy. The architect relocated the map's wall by supplemental instruction after fabrication was already underway. And ~270 ADA signs had to land right in a building of arms vaults, ready bays, and a COMSEC room — which is why our PM's first RFI ran eleven questions deep.
02 / Our approach
We engineered the world so its seams vanish into geopolitical borders — the US/Canada line, Europe/Russia — with small islands deliberately oversized to survive the waterjet. Africa is a single full sheet. Before a stud was set, we CNC-cut full-size cardboard templates of every continent and used them on the wall to transfer hundreds of mounting points, then set the aluminum from a scissor lift, piece by 175-pound piece, with blocking coordinated behind the wall during framing. Outside, the monument's stainless letters went on above the drawing's marked Minnesota snowline in February; the sectioned red insignia went up the facade the same winter. The contract closed clean, the warranty stood — and a year later the Commanding General personally requested more: 'Red Bulls 34 ID' added to the monument, matched to the original stainless. We lettered the building again when it was renamed for General John W. Vessey Jr., and AHATS still orders from us directly, five years on.
A world that fits through the front door
Our designer's note to the architect, preserved in the submittal record: "I cannot make the world in one piece and still get it in the front door, or lift it… I assumed that it made it more unique to give them some irregularity to shape, understanding that war is always redefining the world and these lines are changing." So the seams became borders. Where the map had to break, it breaks where the world does.
- Africa: one full 5×10 sheet, 175 pounds of aluminum
- Seams hidden on the US/Canada and Europe/Russia borders
- Hawaii deliberately oversized to survive fabrication
- Full-size cardboard templates cut before any aluminum moved
Setting the map
Scope & features
- 16' × 40' dimensional world map — ¼" waterjet-cut aluminum, brushed, clear-coated
- Map seams engineered to disappear into geopolitical borders
- Full-size CNC-cut cardboard templates before a single stud was set
- Scissor-lift installation, two stories up a finished lobby wall
- 9' × 12' sectioned red insignia of the 34th Infantry 'Red Bull' high on the facade
- Brushed C304 stainless monument lettering — set above the marked Minnesota snowline
- 'Red Bulls 34 ID' added to the monument a year later, by the Commanding General's request
- Assembly Hall, Auditorium, and battle-honor room letter sets
- ~270 ADA signs for arms vaults, ready bays, and secure spaces
- Security-screened, rostered, badged fabrication and install crews
- Building renamed for Gen. John W. Vessey Jr. — we set those letters too
- Five-plus years of direct AHATS orders since closeout
- The map has a reputation: another Guard facility has since come looking for one of its own
- Stahl Construction keeps inviting us onto its next bids — including the Guard's newest building
Materials
- ¼" waterjet-cut 5052 aluminum, brushed + clear
- C304 brushed stainless letters
- Red satin painted insignia — aluminum & acrylic
- Dimensional interior letters (Stencil)
- ADA acrylic · raised copy · Grade II braille
- Flush stud mounts · silicone set
