photo by: Sara Shepherd

Construction on KU's new Earth, Energy and Environment Center, or EEEC, on the northeast corner of 15th Street and Naismith Drive, is pictured on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Adjacent to Lindley Hall, the building — featuring two towers, Ritchie Hall and Slawson Hall — is scheduled for completion in fall 2017.

Topeka ? Kansas lawmakers who oversee state buildings and construction projects seemed generally pleased Tuesday when University of Kansas officials briefed them on the university’s latest five-year capital improvements plan.

The tone of Tuesday’s hearing before the Joint Committee on State Building Construction was sharply different from hearings last year when KU stirred controversy by using an out-of-state public financing firm to issue bonds for projects in the Central District development area that many lawmakers had questioned.

“That’s all water under the bridge as far as I’m concerned,” Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita, said after the hearing. “I think they’re moving forward. They’ve got some exciting projects.”

The hearing covered building plans on both the Lawrence campus and at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

The Medical Center project list includes a new $75 million medical education building, which is now under construction and is expected to be completed by 2018, a project lawmakers previously authorized and that is being funded in large part with state money.

For the Lawrence campus, the project list includes buildings and facilities funded primarily with private gifts, federal funds, parking fees and other nonstate sources of revenue.

Among them is the $82 million Earth, Energy and Environment Center — now under construction — that will be used by both the geology and engineering programs.

KU officials also briefed lawmakers on the $70.5 million Capitol Federal Hall, which opened this year as the new home for the School of Business, and a $6.9 million remodeling project at the Spencer Museum of Art.

“I’m personally excited to see the work going on along Memorial Drive,” said Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, who serves on the committee.

The joint committee serves mainly as an oversight panel to monitor state buildings and construction projects. A large percentage of all the buildings that the state owns are located on university campuses.

The panel has no statutory authority to approve or disapprove projects, but it does make recommendations to the House and Senate budget committees about which projects its members believe should be approved for state funding.