The entire 150,000-sq-ft complex, including the current building, will be named the L.S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute after Leonard S. Skaggs Jr., the retail force behind such well-known grocery and drugstore chains as Acme, Safeway, Albertsons, Longs and others.

这座6,900万美元的建筑完全由私人捐款提供资金，主要来自Skaggs家族和相关实体 - Alsam基金会和Skaggs研究所。

L.S. Skaggs Jr. had funded the original building, built in 1965 and named after his father, L.S. Skaggs Sr.

A glass atrium will connect the new 30,000-sq-ft facility with the university's existing pharmacy building. In addition to functioning as a four-story bridge between the new and old structures, the atrium provides study areas and seminar and event space for the university's College of Pharmacy.

"The process started in 2006 with a vision for a pharmacy-research building that would bring our faculty and students back together again as they were in 1965," says John W. Mauger, a former dean of the college who helped spearhead the project until stepping down in 2009. "The idea for an atrium was to join the legacies of Mr. Skaggs and his father."

Upon completion, the institute will house the College of Pharmacy, which is currently dispersed across eight buildings throughout the campus.

In addition to four floors of teaching, office and laboratory space, the new building will have a basement-level vivarium for pharmacological studies with rodents. Part of the fourth floor will provide a home for the Utah Poison Control Center, which answers an average of 150 calls a day.

盐湖城的雅各布建筑正在监督该建筑的建筑，该建筑于2010年5月打破了地面，并于8月份出现。

The new building aims to earn LEED Gold. Energy models estimate that it will use 23% less energy than a typical laboratory project, exceeding the state's LEED-Silver requirements.

The building also will meet the university's goal for water reduction, using about 37% less domestic water than a comparable building.