University Record: "U-M’s new College of Pharmacy building officially opens its doors" . . .
September 1, 2026
U-M’s new College of Pharmacy building officially opens its doors
Byline:
By Genevieve Monsma
The University Record
PIC CAPTION: The new six-level, 142,000-square-foot College of Pharmacy building is located at East Huron Street and Glen Avenue, close to Michigan Medicine and other U-M partners. (Photo by Christopher Billick, Michigan Commons)
President Domenico Grasso described the opening as a “homecoming.”
“We were the first university in the state to offer pharmacy courses, which from the beginning were known for their high standards,” Grasso said. “Over the decades, students and faculty have had several academic homes on campus.”
Even after a dedicated College of Pharmacy building opened in 1960, classes and offices remained spread across campus, he said. The new facility brings more of the college community together than at any time in decades.
“Learning, teaching, and researching in a shared environment is a powerful formula for discovery and innovation,” Grasso said. “This spectacular new facility is a collaborative, flexible, and sustainable space. It will support pharmacy education and research in ways we need today and in ways we have yet to imagine.”
A showcase for sustainable construction
The new facility also represents a significant step forward in sustainable campus construction.
It is U-M’s first mass-timber building and the tallest mass-timber research building in the world. The hybrid mass-timber structure has approximately 40% lower embodied carbon than a comparable steel-and-concrete structure, and the project is targeting LEED Gold certification.
Other sustainable features include high-performance building systems designed to reduce energy use, low-flow plumbing fixtures, an underground stormwater management system and native, drought-tolerant landscaping irrigated through a bioswale rainwater system. The building is expected to reduce typical water consumption by 20% and was designed to exceed current energy-efficiency standards.
“This building is a model. It’s not an exception. It exemplifies the values that guide the University of Michigan. Here, sustainability and academic excellence reinforce one another,” said Shalanda Baker, vice provost for sustainability and climate action in the Office of the Provost.
“For generations, pharmacists have improved lives through discovery, education, and patient care. Today, we recognize more than ever what contributes to good health. Health is not only shaped by the medicines we develop or the care we provide, but also by the conditions that allow people and communities to thrive —clean air, safe water, resilient infrastructure, thoughtfully designed buildings like this one.
“It’s more than a space built with sustainability in mind. It’s a living, learning laboratory, demonstrating every day that environmental responsibility, scientific discovery, and student success thrive together.”
Interiors created with its inhabitants in mind
College of Pharmacy faculty, staff and students also had a hand in helping to shape the building’s interiors.
They participated in surveys to help choose a color palette that complemented the natural materials and wood used throughout the building, and employees were invited to test and rate potential desk chairs at a “chair fair.”
The architects and construction team also built two mock 80-square-foot offices in the basement of the former pharmacy building so employees could get a better sense of how the offices in the new building would feel before moving in.
Visual elements that celebrate the college’s history were thoughtfully planned as well. A forthcoming Hall of History will include a video about how the college has grown and evolved over the past 150 years, and searchable digital class composites will enable alumni and students to find their own classes and have copies emailed to them.
On the main level, visitors can explore a commissioned mural by Ellen Rutt, an alumna of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. The expansive artwork, titled “InterActions” after the college’s former publication, incorporates capsule shapes among its pharmacy-inspired imagery. (For more information on the mural, see “New mural captures past, present and future of U-M’s College of Pharmacy.”)
Spaces built for flexibility and collaboration
Throughout the building, classrooms, research spaces and common areas were deliberately designed to accommodate different ways of learning and working.
The Timothy Cunniff Classroom, one of the facility’s largest teaching spaces, can operate as a single room or be divided into three classrooms. It can also serve as space for large meetings and special events.
Research areas were similarly designed to bring people together while providing specialized equipment for modern scientific work. The building includes traditional laboratories as well as “dry labs” used for computer-based learning and data analysis.
The lower level houses the Biomedical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Core, a research facility where faculty, students, researchers across U-M and external investigators can study the structure and behavior of molecules.
Many spaces throughout the building also recognize alumni and donors whose connections to the College of Pharmacy span generations, including the Drs. Hans W. Vahlteich & Ella McCollum Vahlteich Medicinal Research Floor. Located on the fifth floor, its laboratories were designed to encourage collaboration while providing the specialized equipment needed for modern scientific research. Vahlteich, a two-time U-M alumnus, developed a patented process that advanced commercial margarine production and contributed to making Hellmann’s and Best Foods nationally known brands.
Finally, throughout the building, there are study nooks and open gathering areas, such as the second-floor Alcove overlooking Central Campus, that give students places to work independently or alongside classmates. On the lower level, a student lounge with its own kitchen offers another place to study or recharge between classes.
A new chapter at 150
The opening comes as the College of Pharmacy marks a century and a half since its founding in 1876.
College faculty and staff began moving into the building in March, allowing graduating Pharm.D., Ph.D., masters and bachelors students to spend their final weeks at U-M in the new space before commencement.
With the fall semester beginning, the building now enters its first full academic year in use.
Before cutting the ceremonial ribbon on Aug. 28, Ellingrod noted, “Today, we celebrate not simply the opening of a building, but the next chapter in the history of the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, and the opportunities created for generations of students, faculty, and staff, and the patients whose lives will be touched by the work that begins here.”
Link: https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-ms-new-college-of-pharmacy-building-officially-opens-its-doors/
U-M’s new College of Pharmacy building officially opens its doors
Byline:
By Genevieve Monsma
The University Record
PIC CAPTION: The new six-level, 142,000-square-foot College of Pharmacy building is located at East Huron Street and Glen Avenue, close to Michigan Medicine and other U-M partners. (Photo by Christopher Billick, Michigan Commons)
President Domenico Grasso described the opening as a “homecoming.”
“We were the first university in the state to offer pharmacy courses, which from the beginning were known for their high standards,” Grasso said. “Over the decades, students and faculty have had several academic homes on campus.”
Even after a dedicated College of Pharmacy building opened in 1960, classes and offices remained spread across campus, he said. The new facility brings more of the college community together than at any time in decades.
“Learning, teaching, and researching in a shared environment is a powerful formula for discovery and innovation,” Grasso said. “This spectacular new facility is a collaborative, flexible, and sustainable space. It will support pharmacy education and research in ways we need today and in ways we have yet to imagine.”
A showcase for sustainable construction
The new facility also represents a significant step forward in sustainable campus construction.
It is U-M’s first mass-timber building and the tallest mass-timber research building in the world. The hybrid mass-timber structure has approximately 40% lower embodied carbon than a comparable steel-and-concrete structure, and the project is targeting LEED Gold certification.
Other sustainable features include high-performance building systems designed to reduce energy use, low-flow plumbing fixtures, an underground stormwater management system and native, drought-tolerant landscaping irrigated through a bioswale rainwater system. The building is expected to reduce typical water consumption by 20% and was designed to exceed current energy-efficiency standards.
“This building is a model. It’s not an exception. It exemplifies the values that guide the University of Michigan. Here, sustainability and academic excellence reinforce one another,” said Shalanda Baker, vice provost for sustainability and climate action in the Office of the Provost.
“For generations, pharmacists have improved lives through discovery, education, and patient care. Today, we recognize more than ever what contributes to good health. Health is not only shaped by the medicines we develop or the care we provide, but also by the conditions that allow people and communities to thrive —clean air, safe water, resilient infrastructure, thoughtfully designed buildings like this one.
“It’s more than a space built with sustainability in mind. It’s a living, learning laboratory, demonstrating every day that environmental responsibility, scientific discovery, and student success thrive together.”
Interiors created with its inhabitants in mind
College of Pharmacy faculty, staff and students also had a hand in helping to shape the building’s interiors.
They participated in surveys to help choose a color palette that complemented the natural materials and wood used throughout the building, and employees were invited to test and rate potential desk chairs at a “chair fair.”
The architects and construction team also built two mock 80-square-foot offices in the basement of the former pharmacy building so employees could get a better sense of how the offices in the new building would feel before moving in.
Visual elements that celebrate the college’s history were thoughtfully planned as well. A forthcoming Hall of History will include a video about how the college has grown and evolved over the past 150 years, and searchable digital class composites will enable alumni and students to find their own classes and have copies emailed to them.
On the main level, visitors can explore a commissioned mural by Ellen Rutt, an alumna of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design. The expansive artwork, titled “InterActions” after the college’s former publication, incorporates capsule shapes among its pharmacy-inspired imagery. (For more information on the mural, see “New mural captures past, present and future of U-M’s College of Pharmacy.”)
Spaces built for flexibility and collaboration
Throughout the building, classrooms, research spaces and common areas were deliberately designed to accommodate different ways of learning and working.
The Timothy Cunniff Classroom, one of the facility’s largest teaching spaces, can operate as a single room or be divided into three classrooms. It can also serve as space for large meetings and special events.
Research areas were similarly designed to bring people together while providing specialized equipment for modern scientific work. The building includes traditional laboratories as well as “dry labs” used for computer-based learning and data analysis.
The lower level houses the Biomedical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Core, a research facility where faculty, students, researchers across U-M and external investigators can study the structure and behavior of molecules.
Many spaces throughout the building also recognize alumni and donors whose connections to the College of Pharmacy span generations, including the Drs. Hans W. Vahlteich & Ella McCollum Vahlteich Medicinal Research Floor. Located on the fifth floor, its laboratories were designed to encourage collaboration while providing the specialized equipment needed for modern scientific research. Vahlteich, a two-time U-M alumnus, developed a patented process that advanced commercial margarine production and contributed to making Hellmann’s and Best Foods nationally known brands.
Finally, throughout the building, there are study nooks and open gathering areas, such as the second-floor Alcove overlooking Central Campus, that give students places to work independently or alongside classmates. On the lower level, a student lounge with its own kitchen offers another place to study or recharge between classes.
A new chapter at 150
The opening comes as the College of Pharmacy marks a century and a half since its founding in 1876.
College faculty and staff began moving into the building in March, allowing graduating Pharm.D., Ph.D., masters and bachelors students to spend their final weeks at U-M in the new space before commencement.
With the fall semester beginning, the building now enters its first full academic year in use.
Before cutting the ceremonial ribbon on Aug. 28, Ellingrod noted, “Today, we celebrate not simply the opening of a building, but the next chapter in the history of the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, and the opportunities created for generations of students, faculty, and staff, and the patients whose lives will be touched by the work that begins here.”
Link: https://record.umich.edu/articles/u-ms-new-college-of-pharmacy-building-officially-opens-its-doors/