Work begins on URI pharmacy building
URI officials said the 148,000-square-foot pharmacy building – which will include three classrooms, a 165-seat auditorium and assorted research facilities – will allow the program to expand. The building, which is designed for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification, will also contain teaching laboratories, tissue culture rooms, an intravenous preparation lab, a 3-D visualization auditorium and a patient simulation center.
SOUTH KINGSTOWN – University of Rhode Island officials broke ground Monday morning on a five-story, $75 million College of Pharmacy building that will be the largest academic structure on the Kingston campus when it is completed in 2011.
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The groundbreaking marks the next phase of a URI construction plan focusing on science and biotechnology. Earlier this year, the school opened a new, $54 million Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences and a $15 million Ocean Science and Exploration Center and Pell Marine Science Library on its Bay Campus in Narragansett.
Enrollment in the pharmacy doctorate program is projected to increase by 30 percent over the next several years. Graduate and undergraduate programs are forecast to expand as well.
“This state-of-the-art facility will pave the way for us to expand our work in training a new generation of pharmacists, growing our state’s research capacity and generating groundbreaking discoveries,” Gov. Donald L. Carcieri said in a statement.
The construction project is largely being paid for through a $65 million bond approved by voters in November 2006, with the remaining cost expected to be covered by donations. More than $4.1 million in pledges have been received as of Monday, according to URI.
“The University of Rhode Island is a real engine for the economic recovery of Rhode Island,” URI President David M. Dooley said in remarks released ahead of the groundbreaking Monday. “This new building represents an important investment in research and education by both the state and the private sector. It’s an investment that will provide a great return to the people of Rhode Island.”
Woonsocket-based CVS Caremark Corp., whose CEO Thomas M. Ryan is a URI graduate, pledged $2 million to the College of Pharmacy last month, about half of which will go toward financing the new building.
“This is a tremendous day for URI and for those of us who set our sights on the goal of building a state-of-the-art school of pharmacy in Rhode Island,” Ryan said Monday in prepared remarks. “With the aging of the population and continual advances in pharmacy health care, pharmacists play a key role as part of the health care delivery team. We are pleased to help in preparing them for their careers as trusted health care advisors.”
URI’s biological sciences complex, DeWolf Laboratory and Tyler Hall north annex will be demolished to make way for the new building and a new quadrangle in the north side of the Kingstown campus. Activities in those buildings already have been relocated to new facilities, including the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences.
URI said the 700 students and 45 faculty members at the College of Pharmacy have outgrown Fogarty Hall, where the pharmacy school has been located since it opened in 1964.
The pharmacy program has traditionally been the most selective at the university, accepting only about 95 students annually for its doctorate program, from an applicant pool that usually totals more than 1,000.
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