Wayne State University Shapero Hall of Pharmacy

People: Glen Paulsen

Date: 1965

City: Detroit

Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, photo by Rob Yallop.

The Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is one of Wayne State University’s founding colleges. The college moved to the Glen Paulsen-designed Shapero Hall building on the main campus in 1965.

Nate S. Shapero, founder of Cunningham Drugstores and known as “Mister Pharmacy” during the 1950s, has been credited with helping more people enter the pharmacy profession “than any other man in the world.” Wayne State University recognized Shapero in 1965 by naming the new College of Pharmacy building after him.

Shapero Hall is a four-story inverted ziggurat form with three steps (the first and second stories join as one layer) constructed of steel and pre-cast concrete. The structure almost looks as though it defies the laws of gravity, given the lightness of the lower level. There are only a few windows on the upper two stories, and they are in slits to prevent laboratory experiments from being exposed to the light of day. Paulsen thought glass walls were overdone and solid walls needed a comeback. Light does flow through ample plate glass windows of the first floor and the regularly arranged windows of the second floor, but it is blocked by the inner core of the building.

The building as it stands today is the central tower part of an overall design plan that was not completed due to funding. The original intent was for an outer ring of support buildings surrounding the central tower, acting as a shield from traffic. The College of Pharmacy moved out for lack of space in 1975.

Glen Paulsen graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in Sweden in 1948. A designer for Eero Saarinen and Associates from 1953 to 1957, Paulsen became a lecturer at the University of Michigan in 1958 and served as the president of the Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1966 to 1970. Among his best works is his own residence in Birmingham, Michigan, (1955). Other prominent works by his Bloomfield Hills-based firm include Our Shepherd Lutheran Church (1966) in Birmingham and the Ford Life Sciences Building (1967) at the University of Detroit Mercy.

(Text excerpted from the Wayne State University Walking Tour script developed by the City of Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board staff.)