At its Friday meeting, the MSU Board of Trustees approved a nearly $16 million construction plan to expand the Duffy Daugherty Football Building.
Creating more team meeting spaces, updating coaching offices and reconstructing surrounding roads to allow for a new steam system all are included in the plan, which also aims to erect an additional $1 million plaza.
If the money is raised, the plaza would boost the original project cost from $14.6 million to $15.6 million. The space would be used to "dress up" the building, Trustee George Perles said.
"It gives people a place to be around the football building, sit down and relax and see the different trophies and pictures," Perles said. "I don't think it will be a problem raising the money."
Trustee Melanie Foster said the plaza project will only come together if the university can raise enough money.
"It really puts a nice face on the whole building," Foster said. "It's outdoors, like a courtyard."
University officials say the overall project will be entirely financed by contributions.
Although the building will sit closer to the street than what the university zoning ordinance allows, MSU officials OK'd the plan.
Perles added that the project will heavily influence the football program in a positive way, but "it won't happen overnight."
"These kids get up early in the morning, lift weights and practice," Perles said. "The only thing you can give them is the facility and the education. We'll see them reap the harvest in a few years when they're getting the victories."
Construction will begin this June and is expected to be finished by January 2009.
University officials also discussed the initial phase of an incremental project to expand and update athletic facilities around campus. The $1.3 million Old College Field plan includes constructing a hitting facility, which is located within the Red Cedar River floodplain.
Foster said the project "has to be totally sensitive to that area."
The building will be "floodable," which means it must be able to withstand water damage, should a flood occur.
"If it should flood, all they have to do is open the door and the water comes out," Trustee Faylene Owen said. "They go in and clean it up."
And now, the former Human Ecology Building will completely house the School of Planning, Design and Construction. The project is expected to cost $2.25 million.
"There was a consolidation of those programs," Foster said. "They're housed in three or four places all over campus."
The school occupies space in the Human Ecology Building, Farrall Hall and the Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture Building, which is inconvenient for students, faculty and staff, she added.
