Replacing a boxy, outdated structure that seriously limited the ability to teach and learn, the new facility features cutting-edge technology, specialized ‘flexible’ laboratories and modern teaching facilities, all within two six-story towers finished with a pre-weathered copper panel and red-brick façade—and crystalline "floating" stairwells.

Funded through a state initiative (UCONN 2000) that set aside $1 billion for a ten year improvement to the university, the $73 million Pharmacy/Biology Building has a total building area of 221,395 sf, with 53,771 sf underground. It is constructed of structural steel with an exterior skin of brick and copper, and an interior that features cherry veneer casework.

Prior to construction, extensive underground utility relocation was necessary, along with demolition of the existing seven-story Annex Building. Also due to the proximity of surrounding campus structures, construction of the towers required extensive sheeting and shoring, specialized pile driving, soil nailing, underpinning, and a series of secant piles to ensure no effects on adjacent buildings.

With its focus on understanding disease, developing drugs, and drug delivery systems, and the best ways to use medication to enhance pharmaceutical care, the School of Pharmacy/Biology is comprised of the North research tower with 41 biology laboratories on three lower levels, and 45 pharmacy laboratories on the upper three levels. Layout in the main research lab is center island bench with reagent shelf and sink. There are two 6' fume hoods per lab with the infrastructure to add two more hoods per lab. A support office is within the lab in an enclosed space. All labs are on the exterior with windows and support space in the center. Utilities are suspended below the casework and up to the ceiling in umbilical cores.

The South tower has teaching laboratory areas, stadium seating classrooms, a 150-seat lecture hall with data hook-ups at each seat and extensive audio-visual equipment, faculty offices, a computer lab, and library. Collaborative spaces include the Pharmacy Library that seats 185 in a sloped classroom, with a Dosage Lab; a glass atrium with wireless eating; and distance learning classrooms with video conferencing. A 23,000-sf underground vivarium features animal research laboratories, a shore bird lab, holding/examination rooms, and a direct link to the adjacent Patho-Biology building. The school continues to add features like an outdoor medicinal garden.

For six years in a row, U.S. News & World Report named the University of Connecticut New England's top public university. The school was also named a Carnegie Foundation Research University Extension, a distinction shared by fewer than four percent of U.S. higher education institutions.

Project Information
Building Owner:		University of Connecticut
Building Location:		Storrs, Connecticut UNITED STATES
Project Type:		New Construction
Principal Building Function:		Research and teaching facility
Project Delivery Method:		Construction Management
Project Timeline		Nov 2002 Construction Start Aug 2005 Completion Last known status: Completed
Project Cost:		$88,609,000
Construction Cost:		$73,000,000
Cost Per Sq. Ft:		$330
		About These Cost Figures
Building Information
Project Includes:		Atrium Auditorium Biology Education Education: Biology Education: Lecture Or Seminar Hall Education: Library Greenhouse Healthcare Laboratory: Pharmaceutical Laboratory: Research Laboratory: Teaching Office: Researcher Pharmacology Research: Pharmaceutical Vivarium
Total GSF:		221,935
Project Team
Builder		Gilbane Building Company
Supplier - Laboratory Controls		Phoenix Controls Corporation
Profile Created 01/01/2006
Last Updated 07/14/2008
About the Reported Cost Figures The cost figures reported are supplied by the firms that submitted these projects for publication, which in most cases are the designers or builders. Whereas these sources are intimately familiar with their projects, they may not be fully aware of the owners' finally-realized and recorded costs. In some cases, costs are truly and completely accounted for, and in others they represent a near approximation of the final costs. Costs have not been adjusted for year of construction, nor has any attempt been made to make regional cost adjustments. Further, costs are not comparable on any kind of detailed standard costing model. Hence, it is possible for the cost of one building to include a steam boiler, while the cost of a comparable building might not include the boiler, if steam is being supplied from an already existing campus grid. Or, in another case, a building might include excess boiler capacity to supply steam to another building. Some submittals include fees or unusual site improvements as part of the construction costs, which others do not.