New Mexico State University will develop a Historic Preservation Plan with a $175,000 Campus Heritage Grant from the Getty Foundation, the philanthropic division of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles.

“A historic preservation plan provides a means to preserve buildings or sites of outstanding architectural, historical and cultural significance,” says Rebecca Sellars, director of corporate and foundation relations for NMSU’s Development Office. “The Getty funding will be used in planning the initial development of an overall architectural conservation plan for all NMSU properties, statewide, beginning with the Las Cruces campus.”

The plan’s framework will be guided by the university’s master plan after it is updated and finalized. The historic preservation plan is designed to involve NMSU faculty, students and staff. It will provide a survey of historic buildings and landscapes owned by the university with an explanation of their historic features and a process for maintaining, restoring and changing the university without compromising its historical value.

“It’s important to preserve some of the physical reminders of our past because they connect us with those who came before us,” says Greg Walke, project manager of the Office of Facilities Planning and Construction at NMSU. “A historic preservation plan will keep us connected to the strong design traditions of our unique history and will help maintain elements of planning and design that will enrich the campus as it grows.”

NMSU President Michael Martin says funds from the Getty Foundation will provide support for this important element of the master plan.

“I view this project as a means of helping obtain a significant goal for the university – to fully establish NMSU as one unified system,” he says.

Since 2002, the Getty Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic supporters of visual arts in the country, has awarded more than 60 grants to colleges and universities in a nationwide effort to preserve historic buildings, sites and landscapes.

The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international, cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Foundation.

For more information: http://www.getty.edu/