The interior of the University of Hawaii at Manoa building that houses the St. John Plant Science Laboratory hasn’t changed much since it opened in 1969. From dated lounge couches and rotary phones in the elevators to the veneer wood paneling in the lobby, the furnishings remain stuck in a 1960s time warp.

The physical building shows its age, too. It’s clear several decades have passed without meaningful upgrades: Light fixtures are corroded and rusted, wall coverings are peeling, ceilings are stained, the air conditioning is noticeably spotty, the linoleum floors are worn, the tired elevators groan at every stop.

The laboratory building — home to the Botany and Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences departments — is in need of $19.8 million worth of repair and maintenance work, including upgrades to the building’s plumbing, air-conditioning system and elevators. It ranks No. 2 in dollar value among UH’s backlogged repairs — a list that totals $487 million across the 10-campus system.

In all, more than 80 percent of the buildings on the 101-year-old Manoa campus — or 209 buildings — have lingering repair and maintenance needs that will cost $407 million to fix.

The figure represents the cost to address deferred maintenance and bring the buildings up to standard, such as painting, roof repairs, and electrical and plumbing upgrades. It does not reflect any costs to modernize facilities.

With legislators set to take up the state’s operating budget starting in January, the university’s administration and Board of Regents are considering different approaches to try to eliminate the long-standing backlog.

"Investment was not made in keeping up with capital renewal, so as stuff that should have been fixed or replaced wasn’t, it built up in a very large backlog," interim UH President David Lassner told the Star-Advertiser at a Board of Regents committee meeting last month. "Some of these projects stretch back to the ’90s."

At that meeting, Lassner first shared a proposal to eliminate the backlog by selling revenue bonds that would be paid back with tuition revenue. The regents also are considering a moratorium on new construction projects until the backlog can be whittled down.

Officials say the lagging repairs need attention because they present safety hazards — such as the 2007 fire in Manoa’s Edmondson Hall caused by an overloaded and outdated electrical system and an incident earlier this year when chunks of crumbling concrete fell off Saunders Hall. The repairs also warrant attention at a time when Manoa wants to appeal to more prospective students in an effort to boost its undergraduate population.

The largest projects by dollar value are on the Manoa campus, according to a June report that breaks down the backlog by building. The school’s needs vary widely, from the $35,000 needed for a biophysics warehouse to more than $21 million needed for the Biomedical Sciences building that once housed the medical school.

In the Biomedical Sciences building, the No. 1 project by dollar value, one graduate student said a mold problem is so bad students can’t leave food out for long before mold attacks.

The buildings representing the five largest repair needs are on average 41 years old. They all require some combination of work to their electrical and plumbing systems, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) equipment, elevators and fire protection systems.

At Holmes Hall — which houses Manoa’s College of Engineering and ranks No. 4 with $18.9 million in needed repairs — employees say the only restroom on the ground level remains closed because the university can’t afford to maintain it.

UH says it hasn’t been successful with securing enough state-backed general obligation bonds from the Legislature to keep up with repairs, renovations and safety improvements.

For example, this year UH had requested $76.8 million in general obligation bonds over the next two fiscal years for health and safety repairs, and $282 million for capital renewal and deferred maintenance for all campuses.

Lawmakers approved $57 million over two years for health and safety improvements, and just $50 million over two years for systemwide deferred maintenance.

Some lawmakers have said they are open to hearing UH’s revenue bond plan. The university would need approvals from both the Legislature and the governor to float the revenue bonds.

The regents earlier this month approved the university’s overall budget request for next year, which includes the bond proposal.

UH would issue about $440 million in revenue bonds over six years to make the needed repairs. That would require annual debt payments of about $28 million in tuition revenue for the next 30 years.

Under one scenario, UH would use about $212 million in revenue bonds in the first year of the plan to eliminate the deferred maintenance backlogs at UH-Hilo and the seven community college campuses, with about $135 million left over to start making repairs at Manoa. The university would issue more bonds in subsequent years to cover the rest of Manoa’s repairs.

UH-West Oahu’s new Kapo­lei campus has no repair backlog. The UH-Hilo campus has a $21.2 million backlog while the community college system has about $58.9 million in repair and maintenance needs.

If approved, it’s not clear which projects would be tackled first.

"UH is currently working on a detailed implementation plan that considers how to best stage the projects in order to contain costs and minimize impacts on campus activities," said UH spokeswoman Lynne Waters, adding that a plan should be completed in January.

If and when repairs are made, keeping up with maintenance will be critical, said Stephen Meder, Manoa’s assistant vice chancellor for physical, environmental and long-range planning.

"If we are unable to maintain, we will be back in deferred maintenance as soon as it happens," Meder told regents last month on a tour highlighting the worn conditions of some of the buildings.

"We need to keep that routine maintenance and preventative maintenance on schedule for every improvement we make," he added. "We need to also have the resources to do it."

THE TOP 10 LARGEST PROJECTS AT UH-MANOA 

More than 80 percent of the buildings on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus require repair and maintenance that will cost $407 million to fix. That’s the bulk of UH’s total $487 million repair backlog across its 10 campuses.