The south edge of campus will have a $44.9 million building, which most students will never enter.
Jim Lowe, director of engineering and operations, said Ball State University would replace several coal-fired water boilers with a single unit. The new boiler will stand between 90 and 100 feet tall and its expected completion date is Fall 2010, Lowe said.
Thomas Morrison, associate vice president for human resources and state relations, said the university requested funding for the project from the Indiana General Assembly in 2005.
Ball State has spent two years securing approval for the project and addressing regulatory issues, Morrison said.
Both Morrison and Lowe said the new boiler would not affect staffing at the heating plant.
"We have a great staff," Lowe said, "and there's no reason to believe that we can't maintain this new boiler for another 60 years."
Lowe said in order to disguise its presence next to the heating plant, a red brick facade would surround the boiler, making it look like a typical campus building.
The facade will incorporate windows to make it look like "a normal academic building," Lowe said.
Morrison said the architects who designed the David Letterman Communication and Media Building would design the boiler's facade.
According to Ball State's Web site, the university built the first heating plant in 1924.
The steam the plant creates provides heat as well as hot water for laundry, cooking and sterilization of surgical instruments on campus and for Ball Memorial Hospital, according to the Web site.
Lowe said the new boiler could use a variety of fuel sources.
Morrison said although the heating plant had been updated with additional coal and natural gas-fired boilers, no component has been subtracted.
"[The] current equipment has been around for over 60 years," Lowe said. "It's reaching its life expectancy. Now we're installing for the future, addressing the long-term production needs of the campus and updating obsolete equipment.
"More important than whatever it burns is that [the new boiler] is clean-burning, even with coal. It's clean and more efficient."
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