Back in March the board approved a 2013 budget that includes funds for “campus-wide master planning.”

This is good news. There was some concern that insufficient attention was being paid to the master plan; Dartmouth likes to update its master plan every ten years or so, and the 2002 plan by Lo-Yi Chan and Gordon DeWitt (pdf) is ready for refreshing.

The process should be especially interesting this time around. The word is that the esteemed Mr. Chan is advising on the project and that the scope of the plan will encompass not only the campus proper but also those properties that the college owns near by.

The announcement of the selection of a firm to carry out the project should be interesting. Based simply on the school’s recent plans and its experience with the North Campus plan of 2001, one might guess that Moore Ruble Yudell and Centerbrook are likely candidates. Michael Dennis & Associates have also been doing interesting work recently. Robert A.M. Stern has been involved in work at Dartmouth for more than a decade. Who knows?

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[Update 08.11.2012: Other firms that might be candidates are EYP (Einhorn Yaffee Prescott); Ennead Architects (formerly Polshek Partnership, which submitted a North Campus Master Plan); Machado and Silvetti (see their Princeton master plan of 1993-1996); and Koetter | Kim & Associates (whose Master Plan for Residential Colleges implemented part of the M&S campus plan).]