The development of the new School of Pharmacy complex with research facilities for the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) is part of the $2.3 billion “UConn 2000” campus modernization effort for this major state university. As one of the country’s top pharmacy programs, UConn wanted a facility that presented a unique image, appropriate for a leading school and respectful of the existing campus context.

The project, which replaces the existing pharmacy school, provides new instructional and research space for UConn’s growing pharmacy programs. The facility includes:

• a library and learning center
• two 120-seat lecture halls with distance learning capabilities
• teaching and research laboratories
• 22,000 sq. ft. vivarium
• faculty and administrative offices
• student lounge and locker area
• garden for exhibition of medicinal plants
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility
• two main public spaces for gathering and interaction: one large three-story atrium and a smaller atrium for faculty

The design of the School of Pharmacy is an assemblage of volumes, each containing major program elements. A large, brick volume contains six floors of research laboratories. A three-story block includes the academic spaces and a copper-clad volume contains the offices for the Pharmacy’s researchers. Students are able to interact with researchers by visiting their offices without interrupting work in the laboratories.

The new facility connects with the existing biology facilities. The School of Pharmacy is an integral part of the university’s master plan, in which goals include the creation of major open spaces. It is the boundary of two new quadrangles – for Science and Biology. The entry to the building, in which the focal point is a three-story atrium, is on axis with the existing street. The atrium serves as a connection to the two quadrangles.