Take a bus to Livingston this semester, via the LX or REXL, and you might be surprised by the campus’ newest addition. Looking like something straight from the set of some futuristic Sci-Fi thriller, the building stands, looming, upon approach, a six story tall behemoth with 25 classrooms, 4,000 seats, and nearly $4 million worth of technology. It’s a true testament to modern architecture: huge, sprawling, state-of-the-art, with a price tag to match.

This is the University’s new 143,000 square foot Business School building, and it’s the latest to be completed in a slew of new projects that the university has undertaken in recent years to in some cases refurbish, and in other cases add to, a long-neglected and ailing campus infrastructure. A total of 14 “significant” projects, according to university records, are currently underway on all three Rutgers campuses, the brunt of which are located on the New Brunswick campus.

The projects — 9 on the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses, 3 on the Newark campus and 2 on the Camden campus — represent an ongoing push by university administrators to revitalize Rutgers’ campuses for a new wave of students and faculty. They range in nature from updates to lab and classroom buildings to the construction of wholly new facilities, and are made possible by an equally diverse list of financing efforts: university reserves, anonymous donations, bonds issued over many years. It’s a leviathan effort, evidenced by the growing number of fenced-in lots and construction vehicles across campus this semester, that administrators hope will help modernize the school’s many facilities and better accommodate its students as it works to reinvent itself as a first-class public university.

But it’s also an effort, like the new Business School, that comes with a pretty hefty price tag. With 10 of those 14 significant projects with budgets of $10 million or more, and at least two with budgets of $100 million or more, administrators have had to exhaust a multitude of options in order to finance this revitalization. On College Ave., for example, financing for the university’s Seminary and Lot 8 redevelopments has all but depleted funding for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority Urban Transit Hub Tax Credits, a program originally purposed to spur development and lure businesses to mass transportation centers like Jersey City and Newark. In other places, the university itself has had to contribute significant amounts of money in order to make construction possible.

While administrators have assured concerned parties that none of these projects — many of which seem to have been accelerated by President Robert L. Barchi and his all-encompassing vision to make Rutgers “one of the nation’s greatest universities — we’re playing with the big boys now,” — will affect university tuition and fees, it’s difficult to see how the massive expenditures won’t on some level be passed off onto students. Just this summer, the university’s Board of Governors approved a 3.3% increase in tuition and fees along with a 1.5% increase in room and board costs, making it the largest hike in three years. This means an additional $1020 — $427 for tuition and $593 for room and board — for the 2013–2014 year. Administrators, amidst student backlash, have attributed the hikes to increases in employee salaries and funding for other initiatives, but it’s not unreasonable to think the incredible costs of this revitalization might somehow make its way onto the backs of students — especially when one considers other expenses the university has incurred recently, including $20 million in lawsuit settlements following last semester’s scandal with former head basketball coach Mice Rice.

In any case, students, faculty, and administrators ought to get comfortable with the infrastructure improvements. They’ll have to live with them, after all, with most not expected to be completed, at the earliest, until 2016. Below is a synopsis of some of the bigger projects going on right now.

Livingston

Rutger’s new business school building at 100 Rockefeller Drive

Business School

Budget: $85 Million

Design: June 2010 — July 2011

Construction: October 2011 — August 2013

Status: Completed

In 2007, the university began an initiative to formulate a “reinvigorated identity” for Livingston campus as a residential campus and hub for student activity. Today, administrators believe they have achieved that goal, having recently completed a laundry list of updates and improvements that have raised the campus from a historically neglected state.That list includes, but is not limited to: a 1.4 megawatt solar farm, one of the biggest in New Jersey; a 58,000 square foot upscale dining facility, which has become the envy New Brunswick’s three other campuses; and a 1,500 student, apartment-style residential plaza, complete with retail spaces.

But it also includes the $85 million, 143,000 square foot Business School building, completed in August and now in full use. Designed by architect Enrique Norten of TEN Arquitectos, it includes 4$ million worth of state of the art technology, 3,200 classroom seats and a Global Financial Center featuring a state-of-the-art trading floor. A $10 million anonymous donation, supplemented by $75 million worth of university-sponsored finances, made its construction possible. Vice president for university facilities Antonio Calcado described it as the iconic gateway of Livingston campus at last week’s RUSA town hall, adding that “love it or hate it… this is what a building is supposed to be.”

Kilmer Road Warehouse

Budget: $3.5 Million

Construction: February 2012 — July 2013

Status: Complete

Last year, the university acquired a 90,000 square foot warehouse last year in Edison adjacent to the Livingston Campus to meet the storage needs of its growing reservoir of records The warehouse, funded through university reserves, has since undergone renovations for this purpose, including the replacement of its roof.

Busch

Wright Riemen Chemistry and Chemical Biology Building

Budget: $115 million

Status: Design underway

In truth, many of the development initiatives the university has added to the docket this year owe their existence to the passing of last election’s Building Our Future Bond Act, a $750 million referendum that authorized the state to issue bonds to fund capital improvements projects at its many college and universities. That act, together with an equal amount made available by the state through a number of other higher education funds, opened up a total of $1.3 million to universities like Rowan, TCNJ, and Rutgers. Rutgers, of course, won the largest share of that money, obtaining more than $400 million for its projects.

One of those projects is the Wright Riemen Chemistry and Chemical Biology Building, a 145,000 square foot facility featuring flexible research labs and teaching areas that will, according to director of media relations E.J. Miranda, “allow the Rutgers Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department to maintain a competitive advantage in attracting top-notch students and faculty.” With 82$ million provided by BOFBA and 33$ contributed by the university, the new facility would replace the campus’ old chemistry and chemical biology department buildings, some of which date back as early as 1947. Construction on this project is estimated to take 2 years.

William Levine Hall Building at Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy

Budget: $37.5 Million

Status: Design firm selection underway

Along with the Wright Riemen Chemistry and Chemical Biology Building, Busch campus will also see an addition to the existing William Levine Hall Building at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. Financed with $18 million in gifts and pledges from university partners and alumni, $16.75 from the New Jersey Higher Education Facilities Trust Fund, and $2.75 million by the university, the addition will house two 300 seat auditoriums, two collaborative practice simulation laboratories, administrative pharmacy practice space, and labs for basic research in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences.

Cook

Construction has already begun at the future site of the Institute for Food Nutrition and Health on Dudley Road on Cook campus.

Institute for Food Nutrition and Health

Budget: $55 Million

Design: January 2012 — December 2012

Construction: April 2013 — April 2015

Status: Incomplete

Considered one of the largest higher education mergers in U.S. history, Rutgers’ recent merger with the University of Medicine and Dentistry has brought with it some extreme changes. Aside from increasing its size to 65,000 students and its budget to $3 million (don’t forget about the debt), the massive reconstruction places the university among the top 25 research institutions in the nation, with more spending on research than Harvard or Yale. Of course, the true financial impact of such a merger is still uncertain — some administrators expect the university will have to shell out around $75 million for the next several years, and no one knows what to do about the almost $400 million worth of debt-burdened assets Rutgers is absorbing through UMDNJ.

Despite the costs, however, administrators are still forging ahead with new projects to capitalize on the opportunities the merger has presented. The university’s new Institute for Food Nutrition and Health, a 78,000 square foot facility planned for Cook campus and dedicated to fighting childhood obesity associated with adult diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, is one such project, financed with $35 million from the BOFBA, $12 million in gifts and pledges (including a $10 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), and $8 million financed by the university. When complete, it will stand three stories tall and include modular open-space research laboratories, a human performance center, a preschool education learning center, a conference center and a dining hall.

College Ave.

Construction has shifted Scott Hall bus stop to a smaller space and uses barricades.

Seminary & Associated Property Development

Budget: $295 Million

Status: Design underway

Nowhere on New Brunswick campus are the university’s revitalization efforts more salient than on College Ave., where a number of individual projects — all included under the umbrella the term “Seminary and Associated Properties” — are slated to improve the campus’ student life and increase resident capacity. Chain link fences, marked by the New Brunswick Development Corporation’s “the future starts here” slogans, have been put up along its main through-ways denoting areas that will soon be home to the next wave of top-of-the-line Rutgers facilities. And a good thing too, Rutgers administrators say, seeing as the College Ave. campus hasn’t seen new residential spaces since the 1950s.

But the combination of university expansion and an already lively urban environment has made progress uncomfortable, if not difficult. Earlier in the semester, Jack Molenaar, director of transportation at the university, explained to us in an interview some of the issues surrounding the new Scott Hall bus stop, erected as a temporary shelter while the university works to redevelop Lot 8 to include a 240,000 square-foot,125-unit apartment style housing complex. Construction on that lot has also forced out the grease trucks, a long-time university landmark and eatery, who’ve had no choice but to settle in various other locations through the city.

The Seminary and associated property development is by far the most costly of the university’s capital improvements. In order to fund a newly-established residential honors college, which will provide 550 beds for the university’s honors student and apartments for faculty members, a new, 175,000 square foot academic building, and the mixed use residence hall in Lot 8, administrators have had to tap into a number of state-sponsored funding programs, as well as contribute an even greater amount on their own. $38.3 million has come from the New Jersey Higher Education Capital Improvement Fund, $17.25 million from the New Jersey Higher Education Facilities Trust Fund, $27 million in New Jersey Economic Development Authority Urban Transit Hub Tax Credits, and a whopping $212.5 million from the university.

This list is not exhaustive. For a full list Rutgers’ 14 “significant” projects, see http://facilities.rutgers.edu/UF/Significant%20Projects%20Nov%2008.pdf