Category Archives: Dorm at Crosby and Wheelock

Designs for Lyme Road apartments revealed

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After a pause in the face of town and gown opposition, the project to design and construct an off-campus undergraduate apartment complex at the intersection of Reservoir Road and Lyme Road is well underway. The college moved the building site from the east side of Lyme Road to the west side and unveiled a complete-looking design by Ayers Saint Gross (project page).

(Calling this site a part of “the North End” is not accurate. The north end of the campus ends at the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center. This site is practically in Lyme Township.)

The Valley News quotes alumnus and retired track and field coach Barry Harwick as he hits the nail on the head:

Although Harwick contends there are other approaches to addressing the student housing shortage, some of them at sites in town the college has identified in the past, he believes Dartmouth’s plan is being driven by expedience over other considerations.

“I think that the reason they’re building this out there is that they want a flat piece of land that they already own that can be built on quickly,” he said.

John Lippman, “Dartmouth College tweaks agenda for Lyme Road housing meetings,” Valley News (23 July 2022).

Other articles on the project include: John Lippman, “Dartmouth calls time out on plan to build dorm complex in field along Lyme Road,” Valley News (22 February 2022); John Lippman, “Dartmouth College revises housing plan with student apartments crossing Lyme Road,” Valley News (23 June 2022); “Plan for Student Housing Moved to West Side of Lyme Road,” Dartmouth News (23 June 2022); “Community Session on North End Housing Draws 150 People,” Dartmouth News (12 July 2022); “Community Meeting Discusses Green Space in North End,” Dartmouth News (27 July 2022); “Third North End Meeting Focuses on Transportation,” Dartmouth News (2 August 2022); “North End Meeting: Building the Student Experience,” Dartmouth News (9 August 2022); “North End Meeting Discusses Design and Performance,” Dartmouth News (16 August 2022).

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Update 10.24.2022: The latest news was left off the post. The apartment project will go before the Hanover Planning Board on November 1 (“North End Housing Project Goes to Hanover Planning Board,” Dartmouth News (19 October 2022)).

Reservoir Road commuter apartment complex going ahead

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The board has voted to go ahead with the ill-sited commuter apartment complex on Reservoir Road (article from Dartmouth). The proposal was paused after faculty objected (Dartmouth, Valley News, The Dartmouth) but those objections seem to have been insufficient to put the project in the bad-ideas bin with the College Park dormitory proposal.

Campus Services has a good explanation of the project (pdf), and the planners have done a thorough job of explaining to neighbors what their goals are (presentation video). There is an emphasis on smart growth and so on — which is exactly right for the neighborhood. That area does need a building at the corner of Lyme and Reservoir Roads. But the idea of busing undergrads out there — of filling the apartments exclusively with people who should be living with their peers on the walkable campus that is centered more than a mile to the southwest — is completely contrary to the new-urbanist principles behind the village centers idea. Bizarre.

And this means that the entire College Park dormitory siting process was for naught. The result of that process was the rejection of College Park in favor of a great site near the heart of the campus, on Crosby Street. That is where this new student housing was meant to be built, and where it should be built.

What happened to Sasaki’s Crosby St. dorm?

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Sunday’s post asked what happened to the “swing space” dorm proposed for Crosby Street. Professor Nyhan, quoted in an article in The Dartmouth,1Parker O’Hara, “New undergraduate housing on Lyme Road to break ground by end of year,” The Dartmouth (25 Jan. 2022), available at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/01/new-undergraduate-housing-on-lyme-road-to-break-ground-by-end-of-year. pointed out the availability of the Crosby Street site. Now Ben Korkowski of The D has an explanation, quoting V.P. for institutional projects Josh Keniston:

“It is a tough site to build on: There is a steam line that runs through it, the Onion and tennis courts are there and it is a relatively tight space,” Keniston explained.2Ben Korkowski, “New residence hall set to replace the Onion placed on indefinite suspension,” The Dartmouth (27 Jan. 2022), available at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/01/new-residence-hall-set-to-replace-the-onion-placed-on-indefinite-suspension.

The housing crunch of the moment does seem to have a lot to do with the long-term decision to throw up a hasty plastic dorm off campus.

Let’s say the Crosby Street swing space takes two years longer to build than the school-bus dorm on Garipay Fields will take. Wouldn’t it be better to put up some Tree Houses in Maynard Yard and on the Gilman site for a few years while building on Crosby Street and then end up with a real, permanent brick dormitory at the center of campus?

 

References
↑1 Parker O’Hara, “New undergraduate housing on Lyme Road to break ground by end of year,” The Dartmouth (25 Jan. 2022), available at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/01/new-undergraduate-housing-on-lyme-road-to-break-ground-by-end-of-year.
↑2 Ben Korkowski, “New residence hall set to replace the Onion placed on indefinite suspension,” The Dartmouth (27 Jan. 2022), available at https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2022/01/new-residence-hall-set-to-replace-the-onion-placed-on-indefinite-suspension.

College planning dorms in the back of beyond

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The planning effort for the Lyme Road South precinct now has its own project page and has a serious team behind it:

Project Manager: Joanna Whitcomb
Planner/Architect: Beyer Blinder Belle
Landscape Architect: Michael Van Volkenburgh Associates
Environmental Design Consultant: Atelier Ten

The planners have sent out a Dear Neighbors newsletter (pdf) letting the neighbors know that a dormitory cluster — a group of “apartment-style” residences for 300 students, presumably seniors — is planned for their area.

Included in the college’s report of last Thursday’s community meeting is a map showing the site of the proposed cluster. The site is south of or upon Garipay Fields, southwest of the Rugby Club and presumably encompassing the driving range of the old HCC Practice Area:


That site is much further away from campus than, say, the Dewey Field Parking Lot, itself a barely acceptable site for a remote new dorm.

Google Maps says it takes 20 minutes to walk from Baker Library to the driving range south of Garipay Fields.

The proposed dorms will be used as swing space during a period of at least 10 years as existing dormitories on campus are renovated. After those renovations are complete, one hopes that the college will turn over the apartments to graduate students rather than expanding undergraduate enrollment to fit the available housing. Perhaps that ability (and commitment?) to abandon the dorm after its use by undergrads is the only thing that could make the plan acceptable.

Taking a piecemeal approach to the expansion of existing dorms (mentioned in this post) would certainly be better for the campus than erecting a distant, school-bus dependent cluster on Lyme Road. Even building a single 300-bed swing space cluster at the corner of Maynard and Rope Ferry would seem far superior to the Lyme Road idea. Once the 10-year renovation project is completed, that swing space can become a combination of offices and graduate student housing — just as Chase and Woodbury Halls at Tuck and 37 Dewey Field Road were all converted from housing to offices. (And whatever happened to the “swing space” dorm proposed for Crosby Street? Wouldn’t it obviate the need for the Lyme Road project?)

It seems that folks are in a hurry, and a grassy, vacant site allows for hastier construction.

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Update 01.24.2022: The Valley News has an article on neighborhood opposition.

Dorms on Lyme Road?

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Dartmouth News and the Valley News report on the college’s interest in developing the land north of the Life Sciences Building, including parts of the golf course. The possibility of such development was spelled out in the master plan some time ago, but the noteworthy new detail is that the college is considering building dormitories on some part of the site.

First reaction to the dorm idea: This is an unserious proposal, a negotiating tactic, like the College Park dorm idea. It is a silly idea. The ten-minute walking radius from Baker is not just a guideline, it is a crucial rule of campus composition. Plans for transit do not eliminate the ten-minute walking radius, and it just does not seem appropriate to have students riding the school bus to class in a place as small as Hanover.

After a closer look: From Baker Library to the Dewey Field parking lot site might be a half-mile and take nine minutes to reach on foot, making it technically acceptable. It is about as far away as the River Cluster was — not an admirable standard, but a Dartmouth precedent. One hopes that the Dewey Field site is the only one they are talking about for a dorm, because any site beyond it would be unacceptable.

(What about the college-related buildings that are not part of the everyday life of students or faculty? Storage libraries and development offices and various back-office functions would be perfect for the golf course sites. They would be much better sited here than in the sprawl of Centerra or in towns around the region.)

If not on Lyme Road, where could the increasing number of students be housed? (The proposed Crosby Street dorm will be ignored, because it will be used as swing space to house students from existing clusters as they are renovated.) Here are some available sites, some of them identified in the current master plan:

  • A second Mass Row
  • The Gilman site (offered in the College Park dorm siting discussion)
  • The Maynard and Rope Ferry corner (or any site on any side of Maynard Yard)

Might it be the case that the number of additional students to be housed, say 350 students, would be too large to fit on one of those sites? Yes. That is a good thing, both for Hanover’s urbanism and for the students who end up living in the new hall. Instead of building a giant barracks, the school should add additional beds to the existing campus at a combination of smaller sites within the ten-minute walking radius, including:

  • Additions to and eventual replacement of the Choates
  • An addition to Wheeler Hall
  • A dormitory range on the outer edge of College Park between RipWoodSmith and Andres
  • A dormitory range west or north of McLane Hall

Obviously these new additions will have to join existing house communities; there is nothing wrong with that. Creating a subtle and sensitive series of additions to historic buildings will be more expensive than dropping a single giant complex on a distant lot, but it will be worth it. It seems that the desire to add beds to the campus exclusively in the form of one entirely new house community at a time is driving the push to build dorms outside of town, and it is harmful.

More observations about the final strategic master plan

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The college released the final (November 2020) version of the master plan (pdf) in July of 2021 (Anna Merriman, “Dartmouth master plan calls for growth along Lyme Road,” Valley News (2 July 2021)). The plan is not getting enough press or enough praise, so here are some observations:

  • As noted earlier, the possibilities for growth in the central campus look great (page 38).

  • The north end opportunity sites are all super. Old Hospital Quad will be an incredible space 130 years in the making (pages 42-43). Fairchild Tower always did seem more than necessary for its purpose; it is really a signpost building (pages 44-45).

  • Putting student housing in Remsen-Vail might be touchy. If you wanted to reuse a dull Sixties building as housing, you should have done it with the DHMC tower. Remsen-Vail could be appropriately used for academic purposes, however (page 44).

  • Lyme Road development is inevitable, but it is not clear how realistic it is to show such development without parking lots (pages 46-47).

  • When it comes to the West End, the novelty in this plan is the meander of the Cemetery Bridge (Thayer Viaduct). It is more like a boardwalk on a nature trail and does not appear to be a suspension bridge at all — but won’t it be extremely difficult to put bridge footings in a cemetery? (Pages 48-49).

  • More on the West End: Again, the original Tuck School building here could make an amazing undergraduate dormitory, but one would hate to see Tuck School vanish into the suburbs (pages 48-49).

  • South End and Downtown: The athletics promenade between Lebanon St. and Thompson Arena is excellent and long overdue. It could be a fine linear work of landscape architecture. Annexing Davis Varsity House as a part of the “house community” for the Crosby Street swing space dorm could be a superb move. The reasoning behind the focus on wellness for an expanded McKenzie is not clear — couldn’t it be used for anything, including arts uses? — but it makes no difference as long as the building is saved. McKenzie might present a real opportunity to create a new building within the historic brick walls (pages 52-53).

  • Quibbles are minor and basically the same as before: Thayer School didn’t go from the old Experiment Station directly to the West End in 1939, it spent several years in Bissell Gymnasium (page 9); the reference to “Dart Hall” is kind of irritating (page 38); and it’s “Bema” not BEMA (page 41).

  • The map on pages 28 and 29 showing named landscape opportunities is an important document. Some offhand proposals for these spaces:

    Name in Plan Proposed Replacement
    Riverfront Park Leydard Park
    West End Green A tough one; this was the Wigwam Circle postwar housing area.
    Tuck Green at the end of Tuck Mall Tuck Circle
    Dart Row Commons Fayer Green? “Commons” is not really appropriate for an open space.
    Maynard Yard Old Hospital Yard. This really is a better name.
    Life Sciences Lawn Another tough one; there is very little historic context here.
    North End Green in a strip of Dewey Field Dewey Field. Another one that really is a better name.
    Vox Lane NHCAMA; New Hampshire something; or State College something? “Vox Lane” has always been arbitrary, which is disappointing in this richly historic precinct.
    Park Street Gateway Piazza Nervi. This is tougher to justify now that grass rather than hardscape is proposed for this space.

Dartmouth Unbuilding and other topics

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  • The smart brick rear ell of Wheelock House, a century-old two-story-above-basement book stacks addition built for the Howe Library, was demolished last month by the Eleazar Wheelock Society.

  • Commencement this year took place at Memorial Field for the first time since 1995. The stage was at the opposite end of the field this year. It would be interesting to learn whether the Commencement canopy is the same one that was first acquired for that 1995 ceremony and has been used every year since. Perhaps there have been different ones.

  • Frank J. Barrett’s new book is called Lost Hanover, New Hampshire (Amazon.com). Julia Robitaille has a Q and A with the author in The Dartmouth (2 July 2021).

  • The Dartmouth Indoor Practice Facility is now the Graham Indoor Practice Facility.

  • Photos of the CECS show it really taking shape. The Irving is also coming along. The Call to Lead has a page on new projects on campus that includes a West End video showing interior models of the two buildings (as well as close-ups of the globe finial following the removal of Baker’s weathervane).

  • DHMC Patient Tower, an appealingly midcentury hospital building by HDR (designers of The Williamson), is slated to stand at the north end of the hospital and join the main building between the bastions of the existing patient towers (Vermont Digger). The site is visible at the right of this iconic aerial.

  • At the trustees’ meeting in June, “[t]he board approved the expenditure of $2.89 million to advance designs for energy infrastructure projects and $1.65 million to support campus housing renewal design development. Board members also voted to allocate $6.9 million for information technology infrastructure work.”

  • The college website is being redesigned (Dartmouth News).

  • The IEEE has put up a plaque on the exterior of Collis (College Hall) to commemorate its importance as the site where BASIC was developed in the 1960s (Dartmouth News). The plaque would be better if it were actually written as a BASIC program, thus proving the simplicity of the language, but this is still good to see. (The BASIC highway marker, because of the limitations of the state’s marker program, is distant from the site where the event actually took place.)

  • Harvard Law School has replaced its old heraldic shield with a new shield in the form of a logo.

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[Update 09.13.2021: A reference to a “new” globe finial replacing the Baker weathervane has been corrected. The globe previously underpinned the weathervane and was left in place when the weathervane was removed.]

The College Street sidewalk and other topics

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  • The college is replacing some of the glass curtain walls on the Black Family Visual Arts Center, including the large etched glass window that clad the upper levels of the building over the west (campus) entrance (former link). The replacement glass here and over the south entrance will be less distracting and provide better management of daylight. The etched design over the west entrance, however lovely up close, did always look from a distance like creeping frost or condensation inside a multipane window whose seal had failed.

  • Very interesting: the college is putting a lot of effort into installing a sidewalk along College Street north of the site of the old DG House (see North College Street Sidewalk weekly update). Sidewalks are good, and this one must have been deemed necessary, but there was something romantic about the way College Park spilled wildly toward the shoulder of the road, untamed. Just look at this barely-trammeled wilderness, as seen in Google Street View during July 2019:

    At any rate, the project involves what appears to be a hand-laid stone retaining wall intended as a counterpart to the existing wall to the south. (Does that existing wall incorporate foundation stones from the Victorian DG House?)

  • Dartmouth News has a video on the wooden sculpture by Ursula von Rydingsvard called Wide Babelki Bowl that now stands northwest of Rollins Chapel. (It is not really a southern counterpart to Thel; that honor was held by Telemark Shortline, which has been removed.) As Jessica Hong notes in the video, the sculpture has a definite kinship with the cyclopean masonry of Rollins; it is also reminiscent of the multi-stone sculptures of Angkor Wat.

  • The college is going ahead with the DOC House renovation (project page) with funding from the Class of 1969. Compare the project page image with the image at The Call to Lead to see the exterior changes on the Occom Pond facade.

  • It is not clear if there is an earlier public mention than this April 20 article, but the trim Sports Pavilion by Burnham Field that was built in 2007 and expanded a decade later has finally been given a name: Reilly Pavilion.

  • Housing developer Michaels Student Living will build an $84 million graduate student housing complex on Mt. Support Road, near the hospital, in coordination with the college (see renderings in Dartmouth News release, site plan in The Dartmouth). The designer is JSA Design of Portsmouth (Boston Real Estate Times).

  • The Valley News reports that plans are afoot to save the Hanover Country Club as a nine-hole course. The northern two-thirds of the course, comprising holes seven through 15, would be used in the new course; the southern portion of the course, lying south of the bulk of Pine Park and including the clubhouse area and the bridge over Girl Brook, would be made available for possible college expansion.

  • The Valley News has a story on a new cold chamber to be built at CRREL.

  • The steel frame of the Irving Institute has been topped off (Dartmouth News).

  • Most construction projects, including the construction of a large dormitory at the corner of Crosby and Wheelock Streets, are on hold, reported The Dartmouth in June.

  • Vermonter Putnam Blodgett ’53 died on March 20 (Valley News). He led the Moosilauke advisory committee, and his woods were the source of the unique forked white pine called Slingshot that supports the second-level bridge as well as the roof of the new Ravine Lodge (see photos in Jim Collins, Welcome to the Woods, DAM (Jan-Feb 2018)). I recall him at the 1995 Senior Symposium talking about the 1949 Tug of War: apparently the regular tug of war between the freshmen and the seniors had come to be seen as too large and dangerous, so the college placed a huge log between the opposing teams and attached multiple ropes to each side. Unfortunately, one of the ropes came loose and the log went flying in the opposite direction, toward the side with more pulling force. He said it was a miracle that no one was badly injured.

  • A ring bearing the letter “Z” featured prominently in a photo in the July 24 Washington Post story on the Pebble Mine project in Alaska. The photograph, by Alex Milan Tracy, showed the right hand of then-CEO Tom Collier, a U.Va. graduate. It’s a safe bet that the ring indicates membership in the Z Society (Wikipedia).

Crosby Street dorm off the table and other news

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  • The construction of the Indoor Practice Facility is nearly finished (see Big Green Alert). The school’s existing indoor practice facility, Leverone Field House, is being eyed as a site for a temporary hospital ward during the pandemic (Valley News). The west wing of Alumni Gym is also under consideration (Valley News).
  • This interesting tidbit appeared at the end of a board news release about new trustees:

    The new board members were elected at the board’s spring meeting, held this year at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.

    That seems like a first. The main news release (issued 1 March) has more information:

    The board met at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., where they engaged in wide-ranging conversations with a diverse group of Stanford leaders including trustees, the former and current presidents, the provost, faculty in leadership positions, and representatives from departments across campus.

    Not sure what to make of that, whether the learning opportunities were added to enhance the remote meeting or the meeting was held on the other side of the continent specifically in order to learn from Stanford.

  • Shattuck’s Revenge. At the Stanford meeting, the board approved a capital budget to fund projects that include “include renovation of Thornton Hall; planning and design of the Dartmouth Hall renovation; planning for proposed projects with private developers, including graduate housing and energy infrastructure; and” other projects. An interesting mention is made of $3 million “for planning and schematic design to explore the renovation and expansion of the Choates residence halls and the East Wheelock residential complex,” and funding for the future Hop renovation (still on the table!) and construction of teaching and research spaces is also noted. Not a word, however, on the Crosby Street dorm, which has been in planning for more than two years now. The project page for the design of the building was quietly removed from the Campus Services website during the last few weeks.
  • Irving Oil Co. has a rendering of the Irving Institute that differs in detail from the other images out there.
  • The college launched its capital campaign two years ago at Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Some photos from the event show considerable attention to detail: the use of Dartmouth Ruzicka lettering on the front facade; the model (15′ high?) of the bonfire, reimagined as a cocktail table; and the plaster/pasteboard renderings of Baker Tower and the main buildings of Tuck, Thayer, and Geisel (it’s white, but it’s a reasonably accurate rendition of the school’s ex-hospital building on Maynard Street).
  • Unrelated even to architecture: Although it is not unusual to hear of a company that has been operating since 1905, it is unusual to find one that has been making the same product since its beginning. How odd would it be if that product were a Morse code key? Take a look at Vibroplex and its Original Standard key. This is not quite an example of Ferry Porsche’s theory that the last car ever to be built will be a sports car (see Porsche’s site), because the FCC seems to effectively subsidize the use of Morse Code by prohibiting other modes of communication on certain radio frequencies, but it is close.

The fine line between clever and stupid

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  • A new site plan for the new dorm by the gym shows some refinement. The “bridge” element facing Crosby Street looks like the main entrance and responds to what planning analyses have identified as a major pedestrian route — the parking lot of the Heat Plant and Vox Lane. That’s nice, and one hopes the emphasis on this route helps cement the place of McKenzie and the Store House. But a good percentage of visitors to the new dorm will be arriving at the front of the building, at the Wheelock Street corner. No path is shown there. The construction timeline states “Commence Completion of Design phase – dependent on fundraising.”
  • Dana Biomedical Library, reconstructed as Dana Hall, has been renamed Anonymous Hall (Dartmouth News, Valley News). Unlike, say, Nameless Field at U.Va., the building does not lack a namesake; its namesake is simply undisclosed. What would be an unfunny move if committed by the administration might be saved by the fact that it was requested by the donor of the renovation. The Guiarini School (formerly the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies) is headquartered in Anonymous Hall. The building contains a DDS cafe called Ramekin Cafe.
  • More Irving renderings are available and a time-lapse video of construction is on line.
  • Dartmouth Ruzicka is being rolled out on the school’s websites, a December article explains.
  • Berry Mall has been torn up as part of the project to extend utilities to the west end of campus.
  • The maples on the south end of the Green are coming down. They did always seem a bit diminutive for the space; too round in comparison to the elms, or something.
  • An article in The Dartmouth explains the Fifty.
  • A well drilled on the Green is being tested for use in a geoexchange system like the one in use at Fahey-McLane.
  • A Valley News article on the projected library storage building.
  • Lawrence Biemiller has a bit on the Hood in a post on lessons that campus buildings have taught.
  • The college is in a partnership with a developer to build hundreds of apartment units for graduate and professional students near the hospital (Union Leader, Dartmouth News). It is hard to imagine how this could be anything but sprawl, but we will see.
  • BGA Daily has photos of the indoor practice facility. It looks like the renderings! One does hope that the building will connect to the brick gateway of Scully Fahey Field, although it looks doubtful. There is a curious kind of preservation going on with the brick pier of the Boss Tennis Center: BGA Daily photo.
  • An article on the new painting at the Skiway.
  • Rauner Library has an exhibit on slavery at Dartmouth.
  • The Reed Hall renovation designed by EYP is beginning (Dartmouth News).
  • Some U.Va. students are saving the old card catalog that was being removed from the main library building (Washington Post), and the U.Va. administration is starting a campaign of plaques, markers, and tours focused on the history of the institution.
  • If you enjoy Kate Wagner’s McMansion Hell, you’ll enjoy her “Duncing about Architecture” in the New Republic, about a proposed executive order titled “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again.” The group behind the proposed order, National Civic Art Society, counts the founder of Joe’s Dartblog among the members of its board of directors.

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Update 02.09.2020: NCAS item added.

College to build large new dorm next to gym

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As a site for the new dormitory (see the site search project page), the college has picked the corner of Crosby and East Wheelock Streets (Valley News). That was the arguably the best location of the three in contention, and it was the only one that campus master plans had previously designated for residential use.

The architect for the site selection is Sasaki, and that firm also seems to be the one signed up to design the new dormitory. One might predict that folks will be upset when they see the designs for a massive five-story, flat-roofed Modernist building between Alumni Gymnasium and Topliff Hall. For background, Sasaki designed Maria Hall at Regis College in Weston, Mass., the Wolf Ridge Apartments at N.C. State, and of course the temporary “house center” social buildings at Dartmouth.