New pharmacy building opens

Two years ago, the School of Pharmacy’s new building was a scene of chaos: A floor collapsed during construction, injuries several workers.

On Friday afternoon, that scene was replaced with one of triumph, as the $45 million Rennebohm Hall enjoys its official opening ceremony. The building, named for local pharmacy legend Oscar Rennebohm, was funded by a combination of funds donated by the State of Wisconsin and by Wisconsin pharmacists.

“This is finally going to give the faculty and staff of our school a facility that will match the excellence of their abilities,” says Melvin Weinswig, dean of the School of Pharmacy. “We’re tremendously excited.”

For most of the last century, the school had been located on the UW–Madison campus in Chamberlin Hall. Built in 1905, that building that long since ceased to meet the needs of the growing school. Rennebohm Hall changes all that, with a forward-looking design that focuses on functionality.

“We’ve been able to modernize the teaching labs and lecture halls in a way that fits the curriculum,” says Weinswig.

As befits a building of its size and scope, Rennebohm Hall features a long list of state-of-the-art features and designs. Among them:

• On the second floor, two immense twin lecture halls are wired for the future, each with stations for 150 students to plug in their laptops. A state-of-the-art digital projector is suspended from the ceiling, its controls located in a podium at the front of the room.
• An technology-laden interactive lab-one of just a handful of its like in the country-allows pharmacy students to refine their patient-interaction skills by videotaping and analyzing interchanges with mock patients.
• An extensive library gives preceptors and professional pharmacists a place to conduct research and access information.
• Modern dispensing and pharmacotherapy labs allow students a space to develop and compound drugs.
• Several student-specific features, including a second-floor food court and meeting area, as well as 400 lockers.

Rennebohm Hall’s impact on the School of Pharmacy has been dramatic and immediate, even prior to its unofficial opening in July. Weinswig says the new building has increased student enrollment by 10 percent, and has been an instrumental factor in attracting several up-and-coming new faculty to Madison.

“This is dedicated to all the pharmacists in the State of Wisconsin,” says Weinswig. “This is something we can each be proud of.”