The S/L/A/M Collaborative tops off new SUNY Binghamton building

Johnson City, NY The State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY Binghamton) held a milestone “topping off” ceremony for their new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative (SLAM). As part of the NYSUNY 2020 initiative to spur economic growth and strengthen academic programs across New York state, the new $60 million, 105,000 s/f academic/research-oriented facility will be located on a new, eight-acre health sciences campus being developed two miles from the main campus.

The new four-story building will house 36 new faculty, staff and 240 students. The spaces will include research and instructional labs, lecture halls, a pharmacy practice lab, library, faculty offices, student activity space, appropriate support spaces and interactive classrooms that can be used for lectures, team-based learning and small-group work. There will be compounding, pharmaceutical care and sterile labs, mock community and hospital pharmacies as well as a state-of-the-art simulation lab. A medicinal garden will also be located outside the building. Nearly two floors of the building will be dedicated to research with high-tech research tools and equipment as well as high-throughput screening capabilities and large-data computing.

The pharmacy school will offer a four-year program to earn a pharmaceutical doctorate (Pharm D. Degree) and will also offer a Ph.D. program with courses taken in both pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacy practice, culminating in clinical placements during the last three semesters. For University graduates with a bachelor’s degree in biology or chemistry, the school will allow them to earn their pharmaceutical doctorate in three years.

“We look forward to this new facility which will provide optimal spaces to advance pharmaceutical sciences and educate future pharmacists,” says Richard Polvino, AIA, LEED AP, SLAM principal-in-charge on the project. “We hope it will enrich the presence of SUNY Binghamton’s pharmacy program and ultimately impact healthcare across the state.”

The long-term plan for this new facility includes three phases; first is the new school of pharmacy, second is the addition of the existing nursing program from the main campus, and third is an expansion of the pharmacy school to accommodate more students and faculty.

The new building is expected to be complete in summer of 2018 and is trending towards LEED Silver Certification.