The college is holding informational sessions in Filene to air some potential sites for a large, 350-bed dormitory cluster (Dartmouth News). “Following the three sessions, administrators will select a preferred site and begin the design and evaluation phase of work.”

There is no word on how many sites will be on the menu. According to the Valley News, “[t]he college has not said publicly what sites are being considered, but spokeswoman Diana Lawrence on Monday said they are all on campus and will be announced at the meetings” (Valley News). One would not have thought it necessary to state that all of the sites are on campus, but this is going to be a huge group of buildings, likely larger than the McLaughlin Cluster.

The need for many new beds is difficult to dispute, especially if the Choates and the River are to be replaced. But the programmatic case for putting all the beds on one site, as opposed to splitting them among four or five buildings or additions to existing dorms, has yet to be made. The college could be letting the goal of efficiency of construction management on a single site get in the way of good campus planning. And the misguided effort to keep everything together is also likely to encourage unnecessary demolition.

Here is a very rough alternative suggestion of a few of the potential sites for dormitories of a reasonable size (basemap pdf):