UK HealthCare

New College of Pharmacy Building To Be Dedicated

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 25, 2010) — After two and half years of construction, 225,000 bricks, 7,300 cubic yards of concrete, and 675 tons of reinforcing steel, the new University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy building is complete. Faculty, staff and students will participate in a formal dedication ceremony at 1 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 25.

Special guests speaking at the ceremony will include Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry, UK President Lee T. Todd, Jr., Provost Kumble Subbaswamy and Board of Trustees Chair Mira Ball. Many state legislators, Fayette-Urban County council members and university administrators will join in the celebration for the new $134 million state-of-the-art academic and research building.

"The opening of our new College of Pharmacy is certainly a special and exciting moment for our students, faculty, and staff," Todd said. "It also is an important moment for the entire Commonwealth. I thank our elected officials and our donors who provided the resources to make this moment possible."

 

Gov. Beshear says Kentucky's investment will yield dividends for the Commonwealth. 

 

"The UK College of Pharmacy's impact will be felt in every community and county in the Commonwealth," he said. "As the latest addition to UK's medical campus of the future, it will be a major catalyst for improving healthcare and spurring economic development in Kentucky. These are the kinds of investments that our state must continue to make a priority."

Located at 789 South Limestone, the 286,000 square-foot facility has been under construction since 2007. It will be the largest academic building in Kentucky and among the biggest in the nation. It includes a five-story atrium, two 219-seat auditoriums, a 110-seat classroom, a 54-seat classroom, a teaching laboratory with compounding laboratory and patient assessment rooms, and nine group-learning rooms.

"The glass atrium is a magnificent feature of the building," said Interim Dean Patrick J. McNamara. "As you stand at the base and look up and see each floor, it accentuates how, from the professional program to pharmaceutical research, faculty, staff and students at the college are interconnected and strive for many of the same goals."

Laboratory research facilities have been created to foster collaboration among researchers in chemistry, biology and pharmaceutical areas.

"This facility will be the flagship research center for drug discovery and development across the state providing opportunities for faculty across the campus and the Commonwealth to interact with our faculty and students and access our unique research expertise and facilities," McNamara said.  

The building also will house the Institute for Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy (IPOP), a new translational research endeavor focused on developing research, training and consultative programs in pharmaceutical policy, pharmaceutical health outcomes, and economic evaluation and decision analysis.

The facility is equipped with the latest in wireless technology throughout the building and includes a video and teleconferencing-equipped classroom allowing faculty and students on the Lexington campus to connect with the more than 300 community-based volunteer faculty members across the Commonwealth.  is also the first academic building constructed as part of UK’s new academic medical campus of the future.

"The new UK College of Pharmacy building, coupled with the new UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital set to open in 2011, is setting the momentum for UK  to offer unprecedented opportunities for the citizens of the Commonwealth with these new state-of-the art research, education and patient care facilities on our medical campus,” said Dr. Michael Karpf, executive vice president for Health Affairs.

Funding for the building included $120 million from the Kentucky state legislature with $40 million appropriated in 2004 as first-phase funding and an additional $80 million funded in 2006. Additional funding has come from the University and private donors.

“This new building will allow us to teach more Kentucky students who will go on and practice their passion right here in the Commonwealth, and it will be home to leading-edge pharmaceutical research – research that will lead to new therapies and discoveries that will help change Kentucky’s economy and help Kentuckians live healthier, more productive lives,” Todd said.

The UK College of Pharmacy is ranked among the top five pharmacy schools in the nation and students graduating from the program have consistently had the highest first time pass-rates in the United States on the national licensing board exam (NAPLEX). The college is an international leader in pharmacy education, clinical care and pharmaceutical research and currently enrolls 514 students in the Doctor of Pharmacy program as well as 72 students in the UK Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Program (Ph.D.).