ISU set to complete College of Pharmacy building by August
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POCATELLO – Pharmacy students at Idaho State University can expect to attend classes and study in a newly remodeled building this year.
Leonard Hall, one of ISU’s oldest buildings, is on track to be fully remodeled by August. This will mark the end of a three-year project. It will allow students of the L.S. Skaggs College of Pharmacy to study, research and collaborate in a “state-of-the-art” facility.
“The greatest benefit is going to be (having) cutting-edge teaching laboratories and the equipment for those laboratories … allowing our students to learn and conduct research in the best possible facility in the Northwest,” said Brian Sagendorf, vice president of campus relations.
The majority of the building’s remodel was funded by the university’s largest-ever single donor, the ALSAM Foundation, which funded $14 million out of the project’s $20.2 million budget. The university also received $3.4 million in capital appropriation funding from the state for the project.
In honor of the donation from ALSAM, which was founded by L.S. “Sam” and Aline Skaggs, the university renamed the college after the Skaggs family.
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Leonard Hall was built in 1943, and 80 years later, the university determined that a remodel was needed, particularly on the second floor where most of the teaching laboratories were located.
“(It) had some outdated equipment, and some lab setups just weren’t very modern and weren’t the greatest use of space in that facility,” Sagendorf said.
The extensive remodel of the building has resulted in a second floor that staff and students won’t recognize, instead, finding the second floor with a “much more modern layout.” They’ll find that some of the classrooms on the first floor have been significantly renovated as well. The entire second floor should look different to faculty, staff and students who used to be familiar with that building a few years ago.
While the building has been under construction, staff and students have been dispersed throughout the campus, still teaching and studying their program. Primarily, they’ve been located in the Business and Technology Center, the Eames Complex, Albion Hall and the basement of the library.
Sagendorf said the university was excited to move the pharmacy students and faculty back under the same roof.
“It’s been admirable to see how well our faculty and pharmacy leadership has adapted to meeting with our students in all these various locations, but I know all of us, including our students, are thrilled to get back to a home destination for the College of Pharmacy in historic Leonard Hall,” Sagendorf said.
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