$62 Million Approved for Pharmacy Hall Addition

New building will help the School of Pharmacy address pharmacist shortage, research, and community commitment

By Jeff Raymond
April 14, 2008

David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), today expressed gratitude and excitement over the approval in the state budget of funding for an addition to Pharmacy Hall at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

“In securing more than $62 million for the construction of the Pharmacy Hall addition, Gov. Martin O’Malley and the Maryland General Assembly have recognized the need to educate more pharmacists, carry out more cutting-edge research, and deepen our commitment to serve the community,” said Ramsay. “We are thankful for their leadership and their vision in helping us move forward with this desperately needed expansion.”

In response to a growing shortage of pharmacists, the School of Pharmacy has ratcheted up enrollment at the Baltimore campus to 120 students per class—more than it was designed to support—and last fall opened an expansion at the Universities at Shady Grove for 40 more students per class. The expansion will more comfortably allow it to take on additional students, as well as 40 percent more faculty in order to help meet the workforce shortage.

The 112,565-square-foot, seven-story building will include lecture halls wired for computers and distance-learning technology, a new patient interaction laboratory, and four floors of space dedicated to clinical and translational research in pharmacogenetics, nanomedicine, and drug discovery. It will be an addition to the existing, 25-year-old Pharmacy Hall, connected by a glass pavilion.

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy has spent more than a decade planning the addition. It should be open for the fall 2010 semester. The building designers will seek a silver LEEDS rating for the project upon completion. Energy efficient lighting fixtures and heat recovery air-handling systems are among the environmentally sensitive features planned for the building.

The addition will do more than house education and research facilities. Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, dean of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, said, “The Pharmacy Hall addition heralds a new era for the School of Pharmacy. The additional space, technology, and resources will ultimately help the next generation of students enter the professional world with all the interpersonal and scientific tools they will need.”