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TEMPE — Arizona State University's aging buildings soon will get overdue upgrades, with an eye to positioning ASU to adjust to future needs.

The projects will be paid for with $200 million approved by state lawmakers in June. The money was part of an overall $1 billion approved by the Legislature for building renewal and new construction at the state's three public universities, with half going toward the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

ASU officials are still figuring out precisely which structures on the main Tempe campus they want to update. Many of the buildings date to the 1960s and 1970s and lack sufficient safety equipment, plumbing, heating and air conditioning.

"We're going to try to improve the quality of the classrooms," Richard Stanley, ASU's planning director, said.

"Most of the work we'll be doing is addressing needs and modernizing."

In all, 17 buildings on the university's Tempe campus require basic maintenance to keep functioning into the future. The Durham Language & Literature Building, built in 1964, is slated for the biggest overhaul — $23 million in renewal work.

State lawmakers spent little to maintain the state's public universities from 2002 to 2006, according to figures from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

State law requires that the Legislature pay for critical maintenance. The Legislature is supposed to use a formula that considers buildings' age and construction costs to determine how much state money universities receive each year.

Lawmakers ignored the formula on the rare occasions they provided any building renewal money, and as a result, shorted the universities about $400 million this decade.

In November, ASU's Memorial Union suffered the consequences of those cuts when a fire nearly consumed the entire 255,000-square-foot building because a cash shortfall delayed a a sprinkler system installation.