School of Pharmacy Celebrates 'Spectacular' Renovation of the Smith Building

By Cynthia McMullen

At age 25, the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy’s Smith Building has had a face-lift. It’s a three-story makeover calculated to enrich the student experience both professionally and personally.

Faculty, students, alumni and friends celebrated the renovations Oct. 12 with a “grand reopening” at 410 N. 12th St. that included student-led tours of the refurbished floors. Featured speakers were VCU President Michael Rao, Vice President for Health Sciences Sheldon Retchin, School of Pharmacy Dean Victor Yanchick and Virginia Dels. S. Chris Jones (R-76th District) and Harvey B. Morgan (R-98th District). Jones and Morgan, pharmacy alumni, were instrumental in securing $5 million from the General Assembly to fund the renovations.

Opening the ceremony, Yanchick noted that as the building was being planned in the late 1970s, there were no iPhones, no iPads, no e-mail, no Webinars, no Google. “Students actually had to go to the library,” he said with a smile.  Today’s students, he said, grew up with technology. “They’re no longer content to sit and listen to lectures and take notes.”

That’s partly why the school, in support of the 2015 vision of the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, decided to make the leap into providing bold new learning experiences, ramping up the technology in a building that was beginning to show its age. The renovations — and the technology — complement and enhance the new curriculum implemented two years ago.

“Isn’t this a special place?” Retchin said. “It just draws you in; it’s a spectacular renovation. ... You’ve created a student-centered facility that will serve the school for years to come.”

The first floor now features a wide-open student commons and cafe area surrounded by conference rooms. The second floor boasts three labs with state-of-the-art technology, expanded patient-interaction areas and a student conference room. The fifth floor houses the new Dean’s Office and Office of Admissions and Student Services.

Designers included pharmacy-inspired elements, such as “pill” lighting on the fifth floor and artifact-filled glass walls on the first and fifth floors. One glass wall showcases a collection of mortars and pestles, while the other – on which the Pharmacist Code of Ethics is inscribed – displays historical medicine bottles.  

“I’m incredibly enthusiastic about the future of this school,” Retchin said, adding that recent jumps in sponsored program funding have propelled the school into the top pharmacy programs. “Vic [Yanchick] has brought the school into national focus.”

Rao thanked Morgan and Jones for their part in obtaining renovation funding. Every dollar, he said, will be paid back “by producing graduates from one of the country’s best pharmacy programs.”

“I have had the opportunity to shake the hands of a number of alumni who are here,” Rao said. “Our alumni are really the key to our success.” Pointing toward a conference room, he raised a laugh from the crowd. “See this room? It has no name on it. Vic will be happy to tell you how much it costs!”

“What’s happening here is pretty special,” said Jones, a 1982 graduate of the school. “Students are coming out better prepared than they’ve ever been. ... I’m very proud to be an alumnus.”

Morgan shared reminiscences of his time as a student, noting that Robert Blackwell Smith Jr. was his dean. Smith, after whom the building was named, graduated from the School of Pharmacy in 1937. He was named dean of the school in 1947, and in 1956 he became the final president of the Medical College of Virginia before its 1968 merger with Richmond Professional Institute.

“I remember organizing the campaign for this building,” said Morgan, who graduated in 1955. “I already had been in practice for 30 years! Much is different,” he said. “But much is the same. ... Students are still first, are still the real emphasis of this school.”