WNEC unveils new School of Pharmacy

Date: 11/1/2010

Nov. 1, 2010

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD It's the most ambitious building project the school has undertaken to date and it's slated to come in on time and under budget.

On Oct. 19, Western New England College (WNEC) invited members of the media to tour its nearly completed Center for Sciences and Pharmacy, a state-of-the-art 'green' building that, at the beginning of classes next January, will be the home of the college's new School of Pharmacy, as well as classes in biology, chemistry, physics and psychology.

"The new building presents an opportunity for growth, for expansion for new lab facilities and new resources for a growing arts and sciences program," Evan Robinson, R.Ph, PhD, the new dean of the School of Pharmacy told Reminder Publications just prior to the start of the tour.

Director of Special Projects David Kruger said the building also represents a return to the college's original mission of preparing students for careers as pharmacists.

"We had a pre-pharmacy program and an agreement with the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy," Kruger said. "In some respect this is a new program and it is also a good fit with the rest of the college."

According Robinson, his discipline will occupy "35 to 40" percent of the new building, with the remainder being used by the other sciences, which will relocate to the new School from Herman and Sleith halls.

"We were given a lot of opportunity to interact with the architects . to have a really profound impact on the design of the building in a way that create a physical environment that will foster the way we want to educate our students," he said.

Among the advantages of the new building are a model pharmacy, which will be positioned next to the relocated campus heath services, classrooms designed to accom-modate a maximum of 75 students, auditoriums designed to accommodate 80 to 85 students, a practice dispensing lab, a sterile IV prep lab, plus smaller student learning rooms, conference rooms and breakout spaces "designed for student interaction."

"We spent a lot of time in our design of our hands-on and simulation environments, where students will learn the applications of what they do, including the inclusion of simulation technology," Robinson said.

According to Kruger, among the simulations incorporated into the pharmacy-learning environment is a lab where a mannequin can be programmed to presents students with symptoms such as a heart attack or high blood pressure.

The building also represents an incorporation of technology to both enhance learning and minimize impact on the environment.

Design of the 126,000 square foot, four-story building began three years ago, when Kruger was dean of finance at the school. He said college President Dr. Anthony S. Caprio asked him to come back out of retirement to complete the project.

Though it is not a LEED (Leadership in Environment and Energy Design)-certified building, Kruger said the project was constructed following LEED guidelines, and incorporates many green technologies in its operating systems.

Among these technologies are the inclusion of seven separate heating and cooling systems for the building, low-E glass, motion-sensitive lighting in all areas to save electricity, low-flow fixtures in restrooms to cut water use, volatile organic chemical (VOC)-free paint on walls to reduce air pollution and the addition of solar panels on the building's roof to provide for the hot water needs of the building.

One of the new systems Kruger is especially pleased with is a heating and cooling system called chilled beam technology. According to information on Facilities.net, chilled beams are "hydronic HVAC components that circulate chilled or heated water and are designed to induce room air flow to cool or heat the space."

"This is more efficient than the conventional systems used in most commercial buildings," Kruger said, adding that, with all the systems installed in the new School of Pharmacy, he expects this building to "use 50 percent less energy [as compared to] building using conventional technologies."

Technologies incorporated to enhance learning include energy-efficient hooded experimentation spaces in the chemistry labs, one-way glass in observation rooms in the psychology labs, on-demand printing rooms on each of the four floors, wide, high-definition projection screens in classrooms, documenting cameras in all labs that can project what a professor is working on or record the project for streaming video at a later date, and a lecture capture system that will provide playback capabilities to professors and students.

Kruger said current economic conditions enabled the college to construct what has come to be called "the jewel" of the campus within the expected budget of $40 million.

"We received an extremely competitive price on the building [and] were able to use an extremely experienced workers, who were available [because of the economic conditions]," he said. Approximately 120 people were at work on the building at any one time.

According to Kruger, when completed, the capacity of the building is expected to be about 900 students at any one time.

"Most of our students will be going through this building because of the sciences," he said.