On April 26, 2013 the University of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts celebrated the grand opening of the new Pharmacy Courtyard and Heber W. Youngken Jr. Medicinal Plant Garden, a beautiful public and scientific space built just steps from the college’s new $75 million home.

URI and arts council officials joined Friends of the Heber W. Youngken Jr. Medicinal Plant Garden, the Youngken Foundation, the URI Foundation, pharmacy students and youngsters from the URI Child Development Center during a ceremonial planting to open the courtyard and garden.

Developed by the College’s first dean, Heber W. Youngken Jr., the medicinal plant garden has been a fixture for more than 50 years on the Kingston Campus in one form or another. A stunning example of public space that draws on nature, science, and art, the new site is a gathering place among the health and life sciences facilities in the north district of the Kingston Campus.

The new courtyard and garden has 200 medicinal plants, 500 ornamental plants, 9 birch trees, grassy areas, walkways, benches shaped in the form of birch leaves, and a translucent sculptural frieze featuring panels that depict plant life in laboratory slides.