Ellenzweig, an architecture and planning firm in Cambridge, Mass., designed the new Biological/Pharmaceutical Complex for the University of Kentucky. The new 285,000-gross-square-foot building will be the new home of the university's College of Pharmacy on the Lexington campus.
Now in construction, the building project began with an extensive programming process led by Ellenzweig Principals Michael Lauber, AIA, and Janet Ross, AIA/LEED AP. Lauber and Ross worked closely with the faculty and administrative leadership of the College of Pharmacy throughout the programming phase to determine precisely what facilities should be included in the building — laboratories, classrooms, core labs, offices, social and gathering spaces, and every type of support function required.
Sizes of every component and desired adjacencies within the building were established during this process.
Ellenzweig Principal Miltos Catomeris, AIA, directed the design of the building. As with all Ellenzweig buildings, the massing and exterior vocabulary of the College of Pharmacy building were driven by the programmatic content, the university's campus master plan, and the surrounding context of the site.
The building design is contemporary and features the predominant campus materials of brick and limestone. Interior spaces are organized around a five-story atrium, which serves as the social hub of the building.
Research laboratories are grouped in "neighborhoods" that include write-up and social areas; although outside the lab, these areas are glass-enclosed to promote collaboration and the feeling of community. Innovative teaching facilities include a variety of spaces from large lecture halls to small-group learning classrooms.
Construction of this highly complex and technically sophisticated research and teaching building will be completed by the end of 2009. EOP Architects, Lexington, is the architect of record for the project; Ellenzweig is design architect and laboratory planner.
Ellenzweig is a 65-person architecture firm that specializes in the design and laboratory planning of science teaching and research facilities for academic institutions across the country. In addition to the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy building, recent projects include the Eccles Health Sciences Education Building at the University of Utah, the Secchia Center for Medical Education at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine, the expansion of Pharmacy Hall at University of Maryland Baltimore, and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.