Master Plan Recommendations

Existing space usage was compared to national norms and projected space needs. A target student population of 4,000 was determined. Based on the current campus uses, circulation and parking studies, deferred maintenance analysis, and input from the Steering Committee, a proposed long-range campus development concept was prepared which organizes the campus to meet the Master Plan goals. Specific recommendations are:

1. Renovate the existing Science Building and build a new addition to house state-of-the-art science labs appropriate for both teaching and faculty research, computer labs, research space, faculty office and classroom spaces. The addition would contain the specialized spaces such as science labs and research labs, and would be designed specifically to provide a flexible, expandable environment.
    

2. Renovate the Liberal Arts Building to update the building's electrical and mechanical systems, academic spaces, offices, and students support spaces. This renovation would expand student service spaces within the building and provide technology-rich classroom spaces similar to spaces in the new College of Education and Human Services Building.
    

3. Develop a new Art and Music Center by removing Cisel Hall, retaining the Recital Hall, and building a new Art and Music wing. Relocating Art out of both the Art Annex and Liberal Arts Buildings unifies the program into one, more appropriate space. The remaining space in the Liberal Arts Building can be expanded and renovated for academic use.
    

4. Renovate McMullen Hall as administrative space, a student service center, and visitor center. This building is the recognizable historic icon of the campus and should be treated as a landmark as well as a welcoming destination for first-time visitors.
    

5. Improve the Entrance from Poly Drive to McMullen Hall by replacing the aging and inadequate bridge over the BBWA Canal. Areas targeted for improvement include: parking areas, landscaping, lighting, and vehicular and pedestrian circulation, and replacement signage. This will create a strong front door image and a welcoming presence to visitors and the community.
    

6. Expand the College of Business currently located south of Poly Drive by acquiring land east of the existing property, removing the existing structures, and building a new College of Business. This site is ideal as a link between the University and the Billings community and provides a strong front door presence from North 27th Street and Poly Drive.
    

7. Visually improve the campus entrance at Poly Drive and North 27th Street by removing the existing Art Annex and Poly Building. Provide new landscaping, signage, and lighting to improve the intersection. By removing these structures, the site is also available for future expansion of the College of Professional Studies and Lifelong Learning currently located in Apsaruke Hall.
    

8. Remove the existing Computer Annex Building and improve the green space within the core of the campus. A dining patio, which opens onto this green space, should be developed adjacent to the dining hall in the Student Union Building. In addition, the tennis courts should be relocated east of the Physical Education Building in a future phase allowing the green space to expand from the Library to North 27th Street. This expanded green space would help visually tie the Physical Education Building back into the campus core as well as provide a safer pedestrian connection between the campus, the 27th Street tunnel, and the Physical Education Building.
    

9. Improve traffic safety at Rimrock Road and Normal Avenue by eliminating the parking lot driveway entrance east of Normal Avenue. This would reduce the redundancy between two existing intersections that are close together, and improve overall parking access safety.
   
   In addition, the parking lot north of Petro and Rimrock Halls should be designated 'Resident Parking Only' with specific spaces identified for visitors to the student Union for conferences and other community uses. This should improve parking availability for resident students and eliminate much of the parking space search that contributes to traffic within the parking lots.
    

10. Improve the pedestrian mall south of the Liberal Arts Building with new landscaping, paving, signage, art works, lighting, and seating areas. This landscaped mall along with the green space south of the residence halls will form a strong, organizing element to the campus and provide important linkages to future expansion to the west and east.
     

11. Develop the BBWA Canal as a year-round water feature on the campus. For much of the school year, the canal is drained of water and a detriment to the visual beauty of the campus. However, when it is filled with water, it becomes a wonderful and beautiful amenity for the campus. One scenario includes operable gates that allow the canal to capture water and retain it during the school year with fountains to aerate the water, keeping it healthy. The fountains themselves will also become a design element within the green space, adding to the overall beauty and charm of the space. It may also be possible to extend the fountain and water elements within the Peaks-To-Plains park to tie into the canal allowing water to be a repeated element throughout the campus.

12. Acquire properties east of the Physical Education Building, north of the BBWA Canal, and south of Panoramic Park for expansion of MSU-B family housing and/or recreational fields.

13. Expand and remodel the Physical Education Building, develop additional and improved softball fields and parking north of PE Building.

14. Acquire property east of North 27th Street, south of the BBWA Canal, west of 26th Street, and north of 12th Avenue for development of student apartments and a conference center with guest accommodations.

15. As the campus continues to grow and expand over time, sites for future buildings and parking structures should be defined by open space that builds upon the character of the existing campus, the green space, the BBWA Canal, and the beauty of the Rimrocks.

16. As campus parking demands grow, a parking structure should be developed immediately south of Rimrock Road, west of Normal Avenue, and east of Virginia Lane. This site would allow expansion of the campus to the west of Normal Avenue in an orderly fashion and provide access to the parking structure off of Rimrock Road.

    The site between Normal, Virginia, and north of the canal, is identified as long-term academic space expansion. This area adequately provides the University with land resources to satisfy all anticipated academic and other programmatic needs for the next 50 years.

17. For the very long term (over 50 years) and/or to accommodate unknown space needs in the future, additional land acquisition should be considered south of Poly Drive and north of Grandview Boulevard. By re-configuring Poly Drive to a two-way street, possibly redesigning the Poly-Virginia intersection, and eliminating Grandview as a street, this land could become a valuable university asset for expansion south of the BBWA Canal.

18. Rename the College of Technology Campus to the "MSU-Billings West Campus" to tie the facility more closely into the MSU-Billings system and identify it less with a particular college. With this action, the current main campus would be referred to as the "MSU-Billings East Campus."

19. Develop an addition to the College of Technology to accommodate the learning computer labs, and computer-aided drafting.

20. Provide a new, competition quality, softball complex on the West Campus with an addition to the existing building for concessions, restrooms, team space, and officials' locker rooms.

21. Construct a two-story, 20,000 square foot addition to the College of Technology to provide: new generic laboratory (biology, life sciences, chemistry, etc.); learning center classrooms and faculty office spaces; computer education laboratory and classrooms, restrooms; and multi-use lecture hall/auditorium space. Remodel interior to relocate several sets of classrooms to locations relevant to curriculum needs and to attain code and accessibility compliance. Site work to accommodate additional parking and landscaping.

22. Improve the student center spaces within the College of Technology building and provide additional maintenance facilities by adding a small addition at the existing loading dock.

23. Develop a central utility corridor within the East Campus with linkages to the Medical Corridor to the south. A shared co-generation power plant could be developed on the Montana State University-Billings Campus, which could provide power for the campus and also potentially for the adjacent medical corridor. One option for the University is to build the co-generation plant north of Facilities Services building with the utility corridor running through the center of campus, under the bridge at the BBWA Canal, and south on 30th Street.

24. Floodlight key university buildings such as McMullen Hall, Science, Liberal Arts, Education, Physical Education, Library, and the College of Technology to improve the overall image of the campus and to improve safety. By lighting the exterior of the buildings, the ambient light level within the surrounding open space is increased creating a greater sense of lighting and safety.

25. Continue to develop a signage program on both campuses to improve boundary identification, directional information, building identification, and way finding.

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