Advanced Surgery Center addition to open in summer

  • The Advanced Surgery Center addition to the north end of the DHMC complex will open this summer (Thayer School News). A presentation about the ASC reveals that it will have a distinct circulation route for animals.
  • Thayer School’s $300 House Project from a while back has been written up in The Guardian:

    After the contest, a workshop was held at Dartmouth University where selected designers and architects further sharpened their ideas. Jack Wilson, team leader at Dartmouth, is now preparing to build two pilot projects in Haiti, one rural and the second urban.

  • Not related to anything on campus, but an interesting idea encountered while perusing aerial views of Berlin, Germany: K.F. Schinkel’s pioneering 1830s Bauakademie building (Wikipedia), demolished by the East Germans, was recreated as a cloth-covered scaffolding in 2005. It appears in current Bing low-angle aerial views.
  • Charlottesville architect William McDonough ’73 (Wikipedia) shares an anecdote about attending a Dartmouth talk by Buckminster Fuller in a blog post at the Times.
  • Phase I of the Collis renovation, focused on the café, is finished (The Dartmouth).
  • The Dartmouth Club of New York (at the 1915 J.G. Rogers clubhouse of the Yale Club) had a pong tournament last month (more).
  • New information about the 2005 SBRA master plan for DHMC is coming to light:

    An analysis revealed that the original DHMC organizational structure is reached its limits, necessitating a new way of organizing the campus. To provide an effective way to unify a larger assemblage of buildings, the master plan proposes a new circulation paradigm, employing a perimeter loop road that provides a sense of orientation and hierarchy to the dispersed building sites on land owned by DHMC and Dartmouth College.

Site updates:

  • The fifteen-year backlog of linkrot has been tackled. All 270 or so broken links have been fixed or eliminated since November. Mobile formatting has been added and the old “Links” page was removed 11.17.2012. The html version of the “Notes toward a Catalog…” was deleted today.
  • Sorry about the login screen popping up for comments. It is not supposed to appear.
  • If this site proves too exciting, head over to the Lamb & Rich, Architects site. Small improvements and sometimes a few discoveries have been creeping into each iteration of the catalog of the firm’s buildings.
  • Please do click on the new advertisements on the right-hand side of this page.
  • Thanks to Bruce at Big Green Alert for linking to the book at Google Books and this site in a post last month about “Dartmouth University.”

—–
[Update 06.09.2013: Broken link to presentation removed.]

Organic Farm master planning, other topics

  • The Planner’s Blog announced that Maclay Architects of Vermont is working on a master plan for the Organic Farm north of campus. One proposed land-use diagram mentions a possible site for a child-care center.
  • Dartmouth Now has an article on the new restaurant in the Inn, located right at the southeast corner of the intersection of Main and Wheelock.
  • Wikimedia Commons has a nice reproduction of the unbuilt 1923 addition designed by Larson & Wells. Surely the firm’s only design in the Egyptian mode, the rear range placed perpendicular to the original building is difficult to read as anything but living quarters; the firm did a similarly large and even more domestic proposal for a newbuild Dragon around the same time.
  • The Rauner Blog has a post on George Stibitz and his remote operation of a digital computer in 1940. The terminal in Hanover was located in McNutt.
  • Vermont Public Radio has a story on the Ice Chimes sculpture. See also the unrelated Alumni Relations post on Carnival snow sculptures.
  • The Victor C. Mahler 1954 Visiting Architects Lecture is now bringing one architect to campus each year for a lecture, starting with J. Meejin Yoon (Dartmouth Now).
  • The Williamson is moving ahead at the DHMC complex (The Dartmouth, Green Building Council profile).

Orozco Murals a National Historic Landmark

A week ago, the Orozco Frescoes in Baker’s Reserve Corridor were designated as a National Historic Landmark (National Park Service, The Dartmouth, Dartmouth Now, NHPR). The nomination was noted here last November. The Planner’s Blog has some information on the effort.

—–
Update 05.03.2013: An article from The Dartmouth.

Kendal is buying the Chieftain

The Valley News reports that Kendal at Hanover will purchase the Chieftain Motor Inn (see also The Dartmouth. As the News reports, the fondly-recalled 23-room motel was built during the early 1950s on a 10.7-acre parcel along the River just beyond what is now the Kendal continuing-care retirement community:


—–
[Update 11.11.2013: Broken link to the Chieftain removed.]
[Update 04.07.2013: Link to The Dartmouth added.]

The University admits defeat, 1819

NOTICE.

The students and friends of Dartmouth University are informed that its immediate officers have resolved to suspend the course of instruction in that seminary. It is due to the public that the cause of this resolution should be explained. A few days ago the Rev. F. Brown requested me to give him possession of the Chapel &c—A request with which of course I could not comply the legal controversy being yet unsettled. Last evening I received from him a note, saying “the government of the College after consulting gentlemen of legal information have concluded to occupy the Chapel tomorrow morning.” Accordingly this morning the Chapel which was under lock and key was entered and wrested from the University by force. In like manner have been taken the tutors rooms and other apartments. I have nothing to say in regard to the motives which induced this determination to outstrip the steps of the law and to retake by force the buildings for the recovery of which a suit against me, by way of writ of ejectment has been brought by Charles Marsh Esq. of Vermont (the lessee of this very property under “The Trustees of the College” so-called) and is still pending in the Court of the United States. But being thus deprived of the Chapel and other conveniences, the officers of instruction in the University are reduced to the necessity of suspending the discharge of the duties in which by authority of the State they have been engaged.

blankWILLIAM ALLEN, President.

DARTMOUTH UNIVERSITY
Monday March 1st, 1819.1William Allen, “Notice,” New Hampshire Patriot (9 March 1819), reprinted in John King Lord, A History of Dartmouth College 1815-1819 (Concord, N.H.: The Rumford Press, 1913), 164 (available at Google Books). A copy of the notice is found in Box 2, Folder 15 of the Papers of William Allen in Rauner Special Collections Library.

———-

References
1 William Allen, “Notice,” New Hampshire Patriot (9 March 1819), reprinted in John King Lord, A History of Dartmouth College 1815-1819 (Concord, N.H.: The Rumford Press, 1913), 164 (available at Google Books). A copy of the notice is found in Box 2, Folder 15 of the Papers of William Allen in Rauner Special Collections Library.

The “Dartmouth University” proposal

The strategic planning report for the “Global Dartmouth” working group (June 2012), released today, makes six proposals, including this one:

6. Rename Dartmouth for international audiences, by:
-Using “Dartmouth University” or some equivalent to refer to the institution as a whole.
-Using “Dartmouth College” to refer to the undergraduate school of Arts and Sciences.
-Maintaining existing labels for other schools.

——-

03.07.2013 Reactions:

One must presume that the working group is not completely tone-deaf and is instead exaggerating for effect. If international public relations is such a problem, then the solution is more or better public relations. The facts that Imperial College London is at number 8 and King’s College London is at number 57 in the Times rankings tend to suggest that this is the case. Each of those “colleges” is a public research university ranked at least 60 places above Dartmouth.

If a name change really were needed for the international market, one would imagine that the first step would be to continue to deemphasize “College” (for example, “William & Mary” is listed as such by the Times) and the second step would be to add an explanatory tagline to the website and other publicity materials provided outside the U.S.:

Dartmouth, an Ivy League University

Dartmouth College, a Small Research University

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

The Sunset, a Small Motor Inn

On the other hand, if the proposal were taken seriously, this is how it would play out: the Board would announce, as part of the Sestercentennial1The College of New Jersey, known colloquially as Princeton College, changed its name to Princeton University at its Sesquicentennial in 1896. It still polices the use of the College of New Jersey name. in 2019, that the arts and sciences undergraduate program would always be Dartmouth College but that the historic umbrella institution, which had never had a name of its own, would be called Dartmouth University.

shields of Dartmouth University

——-

References
1 The College of New Jersey, known colloquially as Princeton College, changed its name to Princeton University at its Sesquicentennial in 1896. It still polices the use of the College of New Jersey name.

Minor updates on building renovations, other items

  • Rauner’s blog has a nicely-illustrated post on Upper-Valley photographer George Fellows, who died in 1916.
  • The Dartmouth on the Collis renovation:

    The new cafe will have an expanded serving area and new cooking equipment, including eight burners at the hot-food station instead of the previous six. The space will feature a larger salad bar, and a Freestyle Machine with over 100 different sodas. The sandwich station will be larger and may feature more filling options.

  • While the ground-level space in the Grange building (Rosey Jekes) is unoccupied, a tapas place called Candela is moving into the coffee shop space in the basement (The Dartmouth).
  • Page 7 of the Winter issue of the Hood Quarterly (pdf) has a guide to public art at Dartmouth: a map with a dozen works listed.
  • Hanover has received the findings of a parking consultant (The Dartmouth).
  • Student slang: The adjective grim makes an appearance in this year’s Carnival theme, “The Grimmest Carnival of Them All” (Mirror cover). On a related note, did anyone else wonder whether the word “joe” in this Sports Illustrated piece on Adam Nelson ’97 was meant to be written with a lower-case j?

    A few days after that win, I met with him at his training base at Stanford, where he explained the mechanics of shot putting with the memorable description: “Little Joe makes the ball go,” while patting his round belly.

  • The New York Times has an interesting travel article on skiing the old CCC trails in New England. It mentions Dick Durrance.
  • A post about Ross Ashton’s Five Windows projection at Dartmouth gives new details on the effort that was required for the show. Each of the windows on the front facade of the Hop was covered with a custom-made Spandex shade attached to the steel window frame by magnetic strips.
  • On the expansion of the Hood Museum:

    We have received a tremendous response to the last issue of the Hood Quarterly, in which we began coverage of our ambitious plans for the museum’s future by interviewing Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the architects chosen by Dartmouth College to renovate and expand the museum’s current facility, as well as the adjacent historic Wilson Hall. Planning for this project, which will see the museum double its gallery space and triple the number of its classrooms through the addition of a new Museum Learning Center, is well underway. I look forward to sharing Tod Williams and Billie Tsien’s breathtaking and highly innovative designs for the expansion with you in an upcoming issue of the Hood Quarterly.

    Michael Taylor, “Letter from the Director,” Hood Museum of Art Quarterly (Winter 2013), 2 (pdf).

—–
[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to Ashton post removed.]

A minor NCAC update and other information

  • Baker is displaying an exhibit titled Innovation on the Slopes: The Early Years of Skiing at Dartmouth, and the Rauner blog has a post on the historic 1935 J-bar lift at Oak Hill.
  • Dartmouth Now has an article on the Skiway.
  • The Green Building Information Gateway has some information (pdf) on the North Campus Academic Center: The senior associate with architects KSWA is Lena Kozloski and the landscape architect is Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., the same firm that is involved in the campus plan. The building will stand seven stories above grade (presumably on the northwestern facade, with fewer stories visible to the south).
  • The Master of Health Care Delivery Science degree seems to be taking on a Tuck-y flavor with its first investiture (Tuck Today). It is notable that this is the first class to finish the MHCDS program; that the program is not “online” or “mostly online” but “low-residency” (see the chart); that the ceremony took place in January, but that graduates can still participate in Commencement in June; and that the ceremony was held at the Inn. (This photo of the class from Dartmouth’s Flickr photostream seems to be the first photo anywhere to show the new eastern addition to the Inn.)
  • The Valley News reports (limited access) that the Friends of Hanover Crew will have to wait another year for a new dock.
  • The Dartmouth reports that a student-driven coffee stand is opening in Stell Hall.
  • Universitization: Back in 2011 the college lamented the fact that it was ranked “99th by the QS World University Rankings and 90th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings” (The Dartmouth). The QS rankings for 2012 list a non-“University” at number one and list two “Colleges” among the top six schools. Indeed, four of the top ten schools are named something other than “University.” The current Times rankings place a different school without the word “University” in its name at number one. Three of the top eight are not “Universities.”
  • The Valley News has an article (limited access) on ski jumping in high schools in the Upper Valley.
  • The Concord Monitor and Dartmouth Now report that the Ice Chimes sculpture has been installed by the LSC.
  • The Dartmouth reports on the beginnings of the Boora project to renovate and expand the Hop.
  • The Planner has more information on the Collis renovation.
  • An interesting early Machado & Silvetti design for the VAC and a Hop addition shows up in the portfolio of Seth Clarke Design on pages 42 and 43. That image of the Hop footprint is actually taken from Hopland on this website.

—–
[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to Skiway article repaired.]
[Update 03.03.2013: Some typos and grammar corrected.]

Wilder’s unfortunate plaque

Dartmouth has marred the generally-well preserved front facade of the historic Wilder Laboratory by gluing (?) a plaque to it (APS News). It is hard to blame the American Physical Society for overlooking Dartmouth’s historic preservation goals or for drafting the text of the plaque with less care than one might hope for,* but Dartmouth should be embarrassed by this oversight.

When Wilder undergoes a restoration in the future, the plaque will probably be moved to an appropriate location. It is not clear whether the removal will leave permanent damage.

———-
*The plaque reads:


At this site, the Wilder Physical Laboratory, Dartmouth College, from 1900 to 1903 E.F.
Nichols and G.F. Hull performed the first precise measurement of the radiation pressure
of light on a macroscopic body, as predicted by J.C. Maxwell in 1873. The Nichols-Hull
experiment provided convincing evidence for the pressure of light, and the transfer of
momentum between light and matter, a phenomenon which has enabled critical
developments in a wide range of fields from atomic physics to biology to astrophysics.


HISTORIC PHYSICS SITE, REGISTER OF HISTORIC SITES
AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY


Quibbles with the wording:

  • The plaque has enough space to inform the reader that he is at Dartmouth College but too little space to provide the first names of the two researchers? They are Ernest and Gordon.
  • Why say “At this site” when the event really did not take place at the front of the building? (I would argue that “At this site” usually indicates either a precise location or the site of a non-existent building, neither of which is the case here.)
  • The experiments actually took place in some laboratory, probably upstairs: wouldn’t it be great if the plaque could tell us this by its text or its placement?
  • Why omit the comma after 1903, especially if you are not going to end the first line after 1903? This mistake makes “E.F.” look like a new form of “A.D.”
  • Are the pressure of light and the transfer of momentum between light and matter really one phenomenon, or are they two phenomena, as indicated by the commas around the momentum phrase?
  • Is it traditional to include three items in the “from x to y” formulation, or would it be better to say “a wide range of fields including x, y, and z”?
  • Does the redundant phrase “REGISTER OF HISTORIC SITES” imply some undeserved connection with the National Register of Historic Places? Wouldn’t that phrase be more accurate and explanatory if it occurred after the phrase “AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY”?

Another old elm felled; other news items

  • The elm tree in front of Collis has been cut down (the Planner’s Blog). The tree stood north of the northwest corner of Main and Wheelock, as shown in the Google Street View image above.
  • Adrain Dater reminisces about the early days of Thompson Arena at DartmouthSports.com.
  • A Valley News article on two guys from Pike, N.H. who were going to the World Series of Beer Pong in Las Vegas explains the game but strangely does not mention Dartmouth, even to distinguish “beer pong” from “pong.”
  • The Alumni Relations Office presents a photoset showing A History of Dartmouth in 20 Objects.
  • The Valley News reports that the Lebanon Planning Board has delayed its approval of a 162,970 square foot research building at the hospital complex. The problem is traffic. (It is not clear whether this is the building formerly or presently called the Williamson Translational Research Building.) (Update: It is the Williamson according to the Union Leader.)
  • The new Dartmouth website makes more and better use of the coat of arms than did the old site. A white outline of the shield is combined with text atop photographs on the President-Elect’s site (in this image) and at least one detail of a portion of the shield is blown up and used as a background in other places (in this image, reminding one of the current fifty-pence coin).
  • Inside Higher Ed has an article on how the for-profit Grand Canyon University is preparing to field a Division I basketball team. Fascinating.
  • President-Elect Hanlon, in his roles in planning and finance at Michigan, very likely worked with Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates. The firm was brought to Michigan by then-president Lee Bollinger, Dartmouth’s former provost, and designed a campus plan (2002) and life sciences complex (2003, 2005).
  • City Prints produces an arresting Dartmouth map.
  • “Dartmouth is, after all, not so much a college as a collection of stories about a college.” David M. Shribman and Jack DeGange, Dartmouth College Football: Green Fields of Autumn, 8.

—–

[Update 01.27.2013: Williamson identity information added.]

Boora Architects to design Hop expansion

Obscured by the news of Phil Hanlon’s appointment as the college’s next president (Dartmouth, Valley News, The Dartmouth) is the announcement by the Hop that Boora Architects of Portland, Oregon will design the long-awaited Hopkins Center expansion (Dartmouth Now). Boora has done several projects at Stanford and appears to have a lot of experience in expanding existing arts centers. The University of Oregon’s School of Music + Dance is an appealing project, and the Hop-like opening up of the Bass Concert Hall at UT Austin is remarkable.

—–
[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to Hop announcement removed.]

A view of the Collis project

Not described in the June post on this project is the wonderful aerial view of the Collis Center cutaway model created by Oudens Ello.

With its decapitated columns and especially its full trees, which encroach on the building and Romantically cast shadows on the floors of nearby rooms, it really does look like A View of the Ruins of the Collis Center. If the walls were crumbling instead of sliced cleanly, the image would be a complete homage to Giovanni Battista Piranesi or Joseph Gandy (Wikipedia; his unfortunately prescient painting of John Soane’s Bank of England as a ruin is in the Wikimedia Commons).

The project is bringing the serving area of the cafe right out to the front of the building, into the original reading room space. The existing mid-1990s dining room, originally built as the Club Room, will remain where it is.

The diminishing supply of Connecticut brownstone and other topics

  • It is easy to forget that the Rufus Graves who was extremely involved in the college and the town — and who built the first bridge over the river at Hanover — is the same Rufus Graves who was central in the founding of Amherst College (Amherst bio).
  • The New York Times has an article on the closing of the last Connecticut brownstone quarry. The remarkable part of the story is not to much that Portland Brownstone Quarries is closing, but that any of the quarries ever reopened once they closed during the 1940s. (This one apparently reopened during the mid-1990s.) Brownstone was used to entirely cover some collegiate buildings, such as Wesleyan’s Fisk Hall, but it does not seem to have been as popular as red brick and limestone. Harvard might be to blame. It is worth noting that brownstone was a popular trim material for Romanesque buildings, such as Bartlett and Wilson Halls at Dartmouth.
  • The Boston Globe has “a series of New England getaways on public transportation,” and the latest number features idyllic Hanover, New Hampshire. It is good to learn about new restaurants that have sprung up, but it is easy to quibble with the use of “College Green” as a (Dublinesque) place name.
  • One need no longer concern oneself about the faux-antique spelling of the name of the restaunt at “5 Olde Nugget Alley.” The building is now occupied by 3 Guys Basement Barbecue (see the restaurant site, PigTrip review).
  • There is some neat rephotography on the master planning website. (See Shawn Clover’s remarkable composite images of the San Francisco Earthquake, then and now. Via Slate.)
  • The Valley News on the extension of the rail trail to connect downtown Lebanon and West Lebanon.
  • Low-angle or oblique aerial photos of Hanover: there are now many available. Lakes Region Aerial Photo has a good collection. Air Photo North America has a few with the Shower Towers still standing after Kemeny was finished. Aerial Design has lots of photos, including winter shots. Then there is this nice overall view published by Thayer School.
  • The College Planner’s blog has seen a lot of activity lately.
  • Thanks to Bruce for the mention on the Big Green Alert Blog. Both the team and the coverage are particularly exciting this year. Thanks to Kevin G. Quinn for the cite to the Old Division Football paper in Sports and Their Fans: The History, Economics and Culture of the Relationship Between Spectator and Sport (Mcfarland, 2009), 235. Thanks to the master planning staff for the cite to the Campus Guide in the history section of the master planning site.

The new Fullington Barn; what did Eleazar brew?

TimberHomes LLC writes:

On a warm late-October day students and staff from Dartmouth College joined the TimberHomes LLC crew to raise the Fullington Barn, a 26’x36′ timber frame structure that will be used for farm related tasks and storage. Over the course of the next two weeks students and staff will continue to work with us to “finish” the frame by installing the roof & siding material, windows & doors, and also creating an insulated room.

The Dartmouth reports on the project, and Dartmouth’s Flickr photostream has a photo. (Dartmouth is also building a 9×12 privy for two composting toilets out there, according to the Hanover Planning Board minutes of August 21, 2012, pdf.)

This barn-raising is not the first for the college. Eleazar Wheelock wrote of the period ending September 10, 1772:

I have now finished (so far as to render comfortable and decent) the building to accommodate my students, of eighty by thirty-two feet, and have done it in the plainest and cheapest manner, which furnishes sixteen comfortable rooms, besides a kitchen, hall, and store-room. I have also built a saw-mill and grist-mill, which appear to be well done, and are the property of the school, and will likely afford a pretty annual income to it. I have also built two barns, one of twenty-eight by thirty-two feet, the other of fifty-five by forty, and fifteen feet post.1Eleazar Wheelock, A Continuation of the Narrative, &c. from May 6, 1771, to September 10, 1772 (Eleazar Wheelock, 1773), 3-4.

Those are very interesting details, but it gets even better:

I have also raised, and expect to finish, within a few days, a malt-house of thirty feet square, and several other lesser buildings which were found necessary. I have cleared, and in a good measure fitted for improvement, about seventy or eighty acres of land, and seeded with English grain about twenty acres, from which I have taken at the late harvest, what was esteemed a good crop, considering the land was so lately laid open to the sun. I have cut what is judged to be equal to fourteen or fifteen tons of good hay, which I stacked, by which the expense of supporting a team and cows the ensuing winter may be considerably lessened. I have also about eighteen acres of Indian corn now on the ground, which promises a good crop. My laborers are preparing more lands for improvement; some to sow with English grain this fall, and others for pasturing[.]2Id., 4.

The Malthouse, which stood near where Wheeler Hall now stands, would have been used to prepare English grain (and corn?) for brewing in the Brewhouse:

A little more than three Years ago, there was nothing to be seen here but a horrid Wilderness, now there are eleven comfortable Dwelling-Houses (besides the large one I built for my Students, and other necessary Buildings, as Barns, Malt House, Brew-House, Shops, &c.) and some of them reputable ones, built by Tradesmen, and such as have settled in some Connection with, and have been admitted for the Benefit of this School, and the most of them near finished, and all expect to be habitable and comfortable before Winter, and all within Sixty Rods of the College[.]3Eleazar Wheelock, A Continuation of the Narrative of the Indian Charity School, &c. from Sept. 26, 1772, to Sept. 26, 1773 (Hartford, Conn.: Eleazar Wheelock, 1773), 22-23.

It is not known where the Brewhouse stood, but it would have been on or near the Green. Wheelock also described that building, or a pair of buildings, as the “brew and bake house.”4Eleazar Wheelock, Hanover, N.H., to the Honorable Trust, London, England (10 November 1773), in appendix to David McClure and Elijah Parish, eds., Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock (Newburyport, Mass.: Edward Little & Co.), 305-306 (“It so happens, that the store house, brew and bake house, and also the mills which I have built, stand upon my own land.”).

————————

References
1 Eleazar Wheelock, A Continuation of the Narrative, &c. from May 6, 1771, to September 10, 1772 (Eleazar Wheelock, 1773), 3-4.
2 Id., 4.
3 Eleazar Wheelock, A Continuation of the Narrative of the Indian Charity School, &c. from Sept. 26, 1772, to Sept. 26, 1773 (Hartford, Conn.: Eleazar Wheelock, 1773), 22-23.
4 Eleazar Wheelock, Hanover, N.H., to the Honorable Trust, London, England (10 November 1773), in appendix to David McClure and Elijah Parish, eds., Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock (Newburyport, Mass.: Edward Little & Co.), 305-306 (“It so happens, that the store house, brew and bake house, and also the mills which I have built, stand upon my own land.”).

Orozco Frescoes nominated for National Historic Landmark designation

Stephanie McFeeters, “College is the only Ivy not spending to lobby,” The Dartmouth (9 November 2012):

For example, when the Orozco murals in Baker Library were nominated to be a National Historic Landmark, Austin said she contacted Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to ask if she would advocate on the College’s behalf to the National Park Service.

Sure enough, the nomination for The Epic of American Civilization Murals in Baker Library shows up on a list of draft nominations to NHL status, with the nomination form (pdf) prepared by Park Service historians Roger Reed and Alexandra Lord. The nomination is part of the Park Service’s American Latino Heritage Initiative.

The National Historic Landmark program is older than the National Register of Historic Places. Landmark nominations are made by the Park Service itself rather than by private parties and are much less common than National Register listings. Every Landmark is automatically listed on the National Register.

Until now, Dartmouth has not been particularly interested in these designations, and no college-owned building has been listed on the National Register. The private Sphinx Tomb is the only building listed in Hanover.

The Manton Foundation funded the recent renovation of the Reserve Corridor, where the murals are located, and the room has been renamed the Orozco Room (Dartmouth Now, The Dartmouth).

—–
[Update 11.11.2012: Last paragraph added.]

Ross Ashton’s Five Windows

The Dartmouth quotes Ross Ashton on his projection, “Five Windows,” which premiered last month:

It’s about a sense of space and place. I always hope that people will see the building in a new way, and I hope to reintroduce the architecture in a new way. The intent is to bring back the history and impact the building had at the time it was made.

Ashton placed white sheets in the tall front windows of the Hopkins Center to provide a projection surface. The town closed down Wheelock Street in front of the Hop during the display.

Dartmouth Now writes:

The projection draws upon both archival and recent images and videos of the Hop, including blueprints and schematic drawings from the planning of the building; photos of the construction and inauguration, including then Dartmouth President John Sloan Dickey atop a front-loader taking a ceremonial first scoop of earth at the site; posters from throughout the Hop’s five decades; and footage from student performances.

See some snippets in this video (via Dartbeat). More information is at Artdaily and Ross Ashton’s website.

Another odd use of history, at Six South

The welcome addition of a new hotel in town, Six South Street, has raised interesting questions about the uses of history and college nostalgia. The place is new and sophisticated, but it needs to appeal to the green plaid pants crowd. It was presumably for this reason that the hotel’s decorators put a large drawing of Hanover in the early 1960s on one wall of the lobby (from the hotel’s appealing website):

Detail of website of Six South Street Hotel, Hanover, N.H.

The drawing was done by Aldren A. Watson in 1964 and a version of it was published in the back endpapers of Ralph Nading Hill’s book College on the Hill. Rauner Library holds the original drawing and the Trustees hold the copyright.

The hotel must have its reasons for displaying a drawing that emphasizes the Hanover Inn and omits South Street. But why reverse the view? Yes, this view is backward: the lobby decoration, which appears elsewhere on the hotel’s website, puts Dartmouth Row on the west and Mass Row on the east. [Update: The image is on glass and is oriented properly when viewed from the other side.]

Image from website of Six South Street Hotel, Hanover, N.H.

—–
[Update 04.23.2014: The Watson image is etched on glass and is correct when seen from the Media Room; note added.]