BOZEMAN — Montana State University is planning some major upgrades on campus with a price tag of $50.5 million.
“You need the new buildings because you need the floor space, but you don’t just burn down your old ones,” said Doug Downs.
Downs, an MSU professor since 2008, has noticed the need for upgrades across the campus's older academic buildings.
“You can catch the whole history of modern plumbing if you look across the bathrooms across campus,” said Downs.
Starting this summer, MSU will be investing back into its campus to complete deferred maintenance projects in an energy-efficient way.
“Improved lighting, improved air handling, improved climate control, and overall, just a more comfortable environment in buildings that haven’t seen an upgrade in a while,” said MSU Spokesperson Michael Becker.
Becker says energy-efficient renovations will actually save the university money over time.
“LED lights or improved geothermal well systems that will allow us to share heat and other energy in between buildings, making so that MSU uses less in utility costs per year, by the factor of about a million dollars,” he said.
Downs says he’s happy that MSU has decided to put this much money towards giving some much-needed care to the older university structures.
“It’s really nice to hear that this money is going to be committed and that we finally got some funding that we can earmark for it. That’s really awesome,” he said.
