Robert Morris College—Chicago Campus, Pharmacy Technology Laboratory

Seeking to fill the rising need for pharmacy technicians, Robert Morris College (RMC) School of Nursing & Health Studies established an associate’s degree in pharmacy technology. The challenge in this project was to create a unique, high-tech teaching environment while responding to the restraints of a tight, existing footprint within the
Leiter II Building, a National Historic Landmark on Chicago’s famous State Street.
The design creates a clean, modern laboratory that replicates a general dispensing pharmacy space as well as a compounding hospital pharmacy. Elements include a public transaction space, IV prep clean room, drug dispensing stations, compounding drug workstations and electronic drug counting stations with internal bar-code scanning. Student station surfaces and lighting were designed to not only provide visual acuity of medications, but also elicit a sense of the ”neighborhood drug store” through the use of fluted glass partitions and internal lighting. To contrast the white, sterile pharmacy, the learning environment was accented with soft colors in the flooring, walls and casework, punctuated with intense primary colors at the drug storage wall.
In addition to the instructional aspect of the project, the design also needed to succeed in marketing the pharmacy program. All areas of the lab are visible through glass partitions. Accent lighting highlights aspects of the space when not in use.

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