University of Connecticut
Pharmacy / Biology Building
Storrs, Connecticut

220,000 SF • 20,440 SQ M

The development of the University of Connecticut’s 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 a research laboratories, 22,000 square foot vivarium, faculty and administrative offices, student lounge and locker area, and a garden for the exhibition of medicinal plants. The building also contains a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) facility and a large three story atrium for gathering and interacting.

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 focal point of the entry to the building is a three-story atrium that serves as a connection to the two quadrangles.

(Photography by Neil Alexander)