Nearly every institution is faced with the situation of having to reduce the cost of a construction project from time to time through a process generally referred to as "value engineering." Just the mention of those words, however, gives rise to all types of connotations, thoughts, and memories (usually negative) for those in the facilities departments of most educational institutions. The University of Minnesota has taken a more proactive approach and has moved to rightsize its HVAC systems as part of a value engineering and cost containment process for some of its building projects. Before discussing the details of the exercise at the University of Minnesota, the author first examines how the university got to the situation of conservatively sizing HVAC systems.