The New College of Pharmacy Building

Construction of the University of New England’s state-of-the-art College of Pharmacy academic and research facility has been completed at UNE’s Portland Campus. Faculty and staff have moved into the building and classes begin in September 2009. The building is the first facility devoted entirely to pharmacy academic studies and research in the state of Maine. 

The building includes the Dallaire Drug Information Center and three innovative teaching laboratories - The Hannaford Pharmacy Practice Lab, The Sterile Products Lab and The Community Pharmacies Pharmaceutics Lab - as well a complement of lecture halls and classrooms equipped with the latest technologies.

A Green Building

The new building was designed by Port City Architecture and is being built by Allied/Cook Construction, both of Portland, Maine and provides 12,000 square feet on each of four floors for a total of 48,000 square feet. The building is registered for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification with the U.S. Green Building Council.

The buildings water use is minimized by highly efficient plumbing systems and appropriate landscaping; the exterior envelope and innovative mechanical systems including chilled beams and heat recovery units optimize energy performance; construction waste was recycled, reused, or otherwise diverted from landfills; building materials have a high recycled content and were locally sourced; and to maintain a healthy indoor environment, building finishes are low (or no) VOC (volatile organic compound) and contain no urea formaldehyde.

First Floor
A large lecture hall is located on the first, or ground, floor.  The Hannaford Pharmacy Practice Lab and a contiguous sterile products room with horizontal and vertical laminar flow hoods is located nearby.   The administrative suite for the dean and associate dean is also housed on this level.  The remainder of the first floor is devoted to general circulation, soft seating, and a student kitchen/lounge area.

Second Floor
The second floor is occupied by two teaching facilities and administrative space.  Offices, conference rooms, and other administrative space for the Departments of Pharmacy Practice and Social & Administrative Sciences take up a significant portion of this floor.  The Drug Information Center and the Pharmaceutics Teaching Lab occupies the remainder of the space on this floor.

Third Floor
The third, or top, floor is completely devoted to the research enterprise providing over 7,000 square feet of research laboratories, procedure rooms, controlled temperature facilities, and hood rooms.  The remainder of the third floor is devoted to offices and other administrative space for the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Classroom and Teaching Lab Specifications

Classrooms
As noted above, the new building houses a 120-seat classroom on the first floor.  This large classroom complements the existing 125-seat classroom housed in the Parker Pavilion on the Portland Campus.  Existing space on campus is being renovated for use as two medium sized classrooms, each with capacity for 50-60 students.  Smaller classrooms, with capacity for 12-20 students, will be used for group discussions and are located in multiple buildings on the Portland Campus.

Teaching Laboratories

• The Hannaford Pharmacy Practice Lab is designed and equipped to serve as a model pharmacy typically found in a community practice setting.  This laboratory is being utilized to provide the students with an introduction to pharmacy practice; compounding prescription products; and the steps necessary to dispense a prescription and counsel a patient in a controlled setting.
  
  Approximately 1,200 – 1,400 sq. ft. is devoted to this lab and provides for multiple computer workstations for patient profiling and inventory control.  An inventory of prescription and non-prescription medications is maintained in a secure setting.  A number of typical laboratory workbenches are also provided for compounding/preparation of prescriptions. 
• The Sterile Products Lab is designed and equipped to provide advanced level students with the experience of preparing a variety of sterile parenteral medications including small- and large-volume intravenous solutions.  This lab is contiguous with the Pharmacy Practice Lab and includes both horizontal and vertical flow laminar hoods and the necessary shelving for storage of medications and solutions.  Approximately 500 sq. ft. will be allocated to this facility.
• The Community Pharmacies Pharmaceutics Lab is a traditional “wet” lab, which introduces pharmacy students to the characteristics of various dosage forms and their formulation and how these factors affect absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of typical medications. The Pharmaceutics Lab also serves as the primary location for extemporaneous compounding exercises.  Approximately 1,400 sq. ft. will be devoted to this laboratory.

The Dallaire Drug Information Center is housed in 1,000-1,200 sq. ft. and provides the necessary technology and literature resources including at least 8 computer workstations for students and faculty.  The DIC serves as a student-training site and provides professional services to area practitioners.