You've seen this thing, right? It was weird seeing it being built and it's still weird now. We played a game called "what the hell do they do in there" but we're fairly certain none of our guesses were right. No offense to the humans who may or may not work inside the place. But seriously...what do they DO in there???

It's officially called the Applied Research Lab of MSU, but that doesn't explain much. Research could be anything. And we're sort of dying to know, now that it's been here for a few years. All we know if that it's a "secure facility" and there's probably lasers and stuff :-)

Boeing, Raytheon and Los Alamos National Laboratory folks were all here when the project was "discussed" but again...does anyone have a clue what kind of weird, high-tech stuff is going on in there?

(Yes, I felt like a total creeper just taking a few pictures of the place.)

photo: Michelle Wolfe
photo: Michelle Wolfe
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You'll find this weird, mysterious building in the smarty-pants part of town. If it's not officially part of it, it's right next to the Advanced Technology Park which has been around for decades. THIS BUILDING, however, only popped up a few years ago and you can see it very clearly from West Garfield.

We SORT OF lucked out. Even though the building isn't on Google Maps aerial view, it DOES appear under construction when you attempt a Google Street View. We wanted to show the evolution of the building to newcomers. It was a SERIOUS building, let's put it that way. Minor jackpot but no real answers....so we had to make up our own ideas of what they actually do in there.

Back in 2018, Montana State University put out a press release that was interesting but offered few details, for obvious reasons: "Montana State University will host a ceremonial groundbreaking for its new Applied Research Lab on Friday, Feb. 23, opening a new chapter for the university in U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense research."

photo: Michelle Wolfe
photo: Michelle Wolfe
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"The Applied Research Lab will allow university faculty, students and industry partners to work on energy- and defense-related research projects previously out of reach due to the lack of a secure facility."

photo: Michelle Wolfe
photo: Michelle Wolfe
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photo: Michelle Wolfe
photo: Michelle Wolfe
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