For the first time in nearly 50 years, students from the University of Utah's School of Medicine, as well as the Colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy and Health, are starting school in a brand new, state-of-the-art building.
The 158,000-square-foot Spencer F. and Cleone P. Eccles Health Sciences Education Building replaces teaching facilities that date back to the early 1950s and provide much needed classroom, lab, and health-care training facilities.
The grand opening celebration (Thursday, Sept. 1, at 4:30 p.m.) will feature remarks by U of U administrators, health sciences students, Utah legislators, and Spencer F. Eccles. Tours of the building will follow the ceremony. The building is located south of the School of Medicine and east of the Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy on the University of Utah campus.
More information about the building, including a map, is available online at http://hseb.utah.edu/ .
Media are invited to tour the building prior to the event. Interviews with students and University officials can be arranged throughout the day.
Facts about the new Spencer F. and Cleone P. Eccles Health Sciences Education Building:
-The $40 million building is the centerpiece of the academic programs at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center-including its nationally ranked medical, nursing, pharmacy, and health training programs.
-The buildings design incorporates the philosophy that students who train together, will work better together. Multipurpose space will serve the needs of all students, regardless of specialty, with major emphasis on promoting interdisciplinary learning among future health-care professionals. Its spaces encourage collaboration among students and faculty.
-The building was made possible through a major state appropriation coupled with a landmark gift of $7 million from Spencer F. and Cleone P. Eccles. Additional contributions from faculty, staff, friends, and University alumni have enhanced specialized named areas and technological capabilities within the facility.
-A sky bridge connects the new building with the adjacent Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, named for Eccles father in 1965. The library was constructed with a generous bequest from the senior Eccles and his wife, Hope Fox Eccles, and represents the first major gift from the Eccles family to the University of Utah.
-The new building is designed to be environmentally friendly. Its use of energy is 35% more efficient than most other buildings. Approximately 11 percent of the building is made from recycled material. All garbage from the building is taken out in sacks that go to a company that separates out, by hand, recyclable materials.
-The building features a four-panel mural by internationally acclaimed artists Galina Perova and Alexander Charin that depicts the history of the health sciences in Utah.