Wayne State University will soon have a 270,000-square-foot, $64 million remedy to address the shortcomings of the crowded and outdated Shapero Hall.

It comes in the form of the building that will house the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, a six-story education and research facility at John R and Mack Avenue. The building, which opens in April, is jam-packed with Internet connectivity and other computer technology, and was referred by one tech writer as "Detroit's most high-tech building."

The project, which began in November 1999, was constructed on budget and on schedule, said Wayne State University Project Manager Fran Ahern. "One of the biggest challenges on this project has been to keep up with the latest technology," she said. "It seems like there's always something new that's coming out, and you come to the point where you can't wait for what's around the corner, you have to build the building."

For example, she said project planners usually waited to the last minute to order computer apparatus in a "just in time" delivery manner, but weren't quite able to wait long enough to install wireless computer technology, although the building is prepped for it.

Serving as construction managers for the project are Turner Construction Co. and Brinker Construction Co./Capital Construction Co.

The building includes scores of research and patient examination labs, occupational and physical therapy labs, a distance learning classroom, computer, wind tunnel and chemistry laboratories.

How high-tech is this building? Let us count the ways:

• There will be two simulation suites with mannequins that can be programmed to respond as if they were real patients suffering from various diseases or trauma.
• Two fiber-optic cable feeds provide a secure high-speed Internet connection to all floors. Each lab and classroom will have numerous data ports that students can use to tap into medical and pharmaceutical research.
• Feeds from two DTE Energy electrical substations will provide power to the building - if one goes down, the other kicks in automatically.
• Each of the classrooms will allow students to sit at Internet-wired tables in comfortable chairs, instead of the traditional classroom desks.

The building includes three utility corridors per floor on the building's upper floors, to maximize the versatility of the building and allow researchers to be able to change their physical space without much disruption to their own work or their neighbor's.

The dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Beverly J. Schmoll, said the new building will allow expanded curriculum offerings and additional research capacity, along with technological capacity that "anticipates the future."

HEFTING A SECTION of exterior coping at the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences building on the Wayne State campus is Chuck Hemple of Sheet Metal Workers Local 80 and Michigan Metal Wall.

A FIRE-ALARM panel on the first floor of the building is checked by Ed Skotzke of IBEW Local 58.