The U College of Pharmacy leaped ahead this week. On Friday morning, the college cut the ribbon for the L.S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute. The building will help bring most of the college, which has been spread out to six buildings across campus and Research Park, in one building.
“Not all of the labs are moving into the new building, but it does help us to bring most of our folks under one roof,” said Ryan Boyack, executive director of development for the college.
The 150,000-square-foot center is an upgrade from the old 17,000-square-foot facility, which was completed in 1966.
The college has been planning construction since 2006 and broke ground in 2010. The college ran a countdown for the days leading up to the grand opening on Facebook.
The institute cost a total of $75 million. L.S. “Sam” Skaggs’ family’s ALSAM foundation donated $50 million. Skaggs was a long-time donor to the college and toured the finished building a few days before his death March 21.
On Friday, he was recognized for his vision as he helped the College of Pharmacy grow since the 1960s when it had just four faculty members.
“This celebration also kind of turned into a tribute to him,” he said.
Chris Ireland, dean of the College of Pharmacy, hopes the college will go on to make an impact that would make Skaggs proud.
“I don’t think that there’s any way that we could ever totally repay the gifts that we’ve been given by the Skaggs family, but I think that one thing we can do is create the new medicine, be a leader in research and a leader in education and try to honor that gift,” Ireland said.
He added the college plans to build an even bigger reputation while housed in the new building.
“We do have lofty goals, and I think — to be honest — we owe [Skaggs],” he said. “We have been given this tremendous gift, so we have to set our sights very high. It is very much our intention to be the number one college of pharmacy in the country, and I am confident that we can achieve that.”
Boyack said the new building will allow for more collaboration.
“There is going to be so much more collaboration that’s going to happen within the walls of the college of pharmacy right now,” he said. “There’s so much more space for research to happen.”
Because the building will help to consolidate the formerly spread-out college, it will be easier for students and faculty to work in tandem on their research.
He said the college now has the facility it needs to move forward and produce first-class research.
“The future is unwritten,” Boyack said. “Now we have the facilities to produce state-of-the-art research. We have a world-class facility, and now, hopefully, we’ll have the ability, through our research, to produce world-class research as needed.”