The recently opened 120,000-sf, $53 million School of Pharmacy building for the University of Waterloo is the first element of a planned Health Science Campus. The city of Kitchener donated eight prime development acres for the planned campus, which aims at bringing a wide range of health-related fields, including the Waterloo Region’s first medical school, together in a compact area. The School of Pharmacy building used mainly local materials in construction. The building walls feature exterior glass murals depicting medicinal plants, which block direct sunlight while still permitting natural light to penetrate the facility. The Health Science Campus anticipates being fully operational by 2012.