Construction continues on new building for three UF health-related colleges
An early February "topping out" party marked a milestone in the construction of a $24.7 million home for the University of Florida colleges of Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy.
Administrators, faculty and staff from the three colleges attended the Feb. 8 party, hosted by PPI Construction Management of Gainesville and Orlando, the company managing the building project. The event was held on the north side of the UF Health Science Center, where construction began in December 2000.
"Topping out" means we have reached the highest point in the structure," said Domenic Scorpio, director of operations for PPI.
Additional crews soon will begin laying bricks and installing windows.
The 173,133-square-foot, five-story building called the Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy Complex�will provide educational, administrative and research space for the three colleges. Each college will have its own entrance and facilities. The building also will feature a 500-seat auditorium, which will be available to faculty and students from the entire Health Science Center for presentations and events.
Classrooms, lecture halls and teaching laboratories on the ground and first floors are expected to be completed by the start of classes in January 2003. A student services center for all three colleges will be completed at the same time, said Gene Brandner, assistant director of facilities planning and construction at UF. The center will offer admissions materials, program information, and academic and financial counseling to students.
The rest of the building is scheduled for completion in March 2003. "After almost six years of planning, it is gratifying and exciting to see the building taking shape," said Dean Robert Frank, Ph.D., of the College of Health Professions. "The complex will be a perfect home for the colleges of Health Professions, Nursing and Pharmacy."
The building will bring the six departments of the College of Health Professions under one roof, easing communication and providing more opportunities for interdisciplinary research.
For the College of Nursing, the building will provide much-needed space for faculty offices, and state-of-the-art classrooms and research facilities.
"The quality of a nursing education program ultimately depends on the quality of its faculty and students," said Kathleen Ann Long, R.N., Ph.D., dean of the College of Nursing. "This wonderful new building will give us the space we need to build on that quality and expand our teaching, research and practice endeavors."
The College of Nursing is seeking private gifts to help equip research areas and provide modern clinical laboratories used to teach students nursing procedures.
Expansion of the College of Pharmacy's facilities is occurring in tandem with the growth of its educational and research programs.
"Teaching of pharmacy students will be significantly enhanced by new laboratory facilities, as well as equipment funded largely by private donors," said William Riffee, Ph.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy.
For the first time in the college's history, students will have access to a fully equipped practice pharmacy that will emulate state-of-the-art community drugstores. Donations from CVS, one of the nation's largest chains of community pharmacies, will support this facility, where students will gain real-world experience in pharmacy practice.
The Eckerd Corp., another large national drugstore chain, is supporting the establishment of a modern computer laboratory in the pharmacy section of the new building, Riffee said. New equipment and public/private partnerships will enable the college to digitally capture lectures and educational demonstrations to transmit to students at three new distance-education sites in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg, where the college soon will offer its full doctoral degree (Pharm.D.) curriculum. These sites will open in August.
Most of the basic pharmacy research programs will remain in the old, but newly renovated pharmacy wing in the Health Science Center. "With strong support from private donors, we have completely renovated the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of this 40-year-old facility, and soon will begin demotion on the third floor," Riffee said.
When construction is complete, a landscaped pedestrian mall with a covered walkway will link the new HPNP Complex to the Health Science Center.