Dartmouth’s architecture in the news

Many thanks to the Review for mentioning this site in an interview. A few points will always get jumbled over the phone, and this might be a good opportunity to clarify them for the record:

  • “National Historic Registry” should read “National Register of Historic Places” and “the register.”
  • “There are state and federal tax breaks” should read “There are state and federal tax breaks for renovations. . . . In addition, anything that gets on the list has to have the owner’s permission to get listed.”
  • “There are state and federal tax breaks . . . largest in terms of commercial properties but still significant for even a home owner. But the real reason for a college to apply is that it is a blue ribbon” should read “Now, if you’re a college or university that’s not a homeowner and not a business, the real reason to be on the list is because it’s a seal of approval. It’s a blue ribbon. . . . Those tax breaks only come when you renovate your building, generally.”
  • “Clement will be supplanted by a new visual arts building designed by McCado and Silveti — a very academic, theoretical type firm — to go on that site” should read “The firm of Machado and Silvetti — big names, a very theoretical, academic-oriented firm — are designing a new visual arts building to go on that site.”
  • “Loews — that notoriously hard to find movie theatre — will, I think be moved next to the site on Lebanon Street” should read “Loew’s Auditorium will move from the Hood into this new building, and I have a feeling it will be placed on the street, on Lebanon Street, so that it will become more of a public movie theater.”
  • “If you go to Oxford you will typically see a dining hall in the vicinity of the chapel” should read “If you go to Oxford, you will typically see a dining hall in the same ‘range’ ([i.e.] the same building) as the chapel.”
  • “I don’t think it should necessarily be torn down or replaced, but it should be amended” should read “I don’t think it’s a terrible building, and I don’t think it should be torn down: I think it should be improved. . . . That said, I think Dartmouth is pretty fortunate to have Murdough and the Choates as their potentially worst buildings.”
  • “I suppose the Fairchild center gets a lot of censure, and it is incongruous. But it is cool. And it was meant to be presentable. I don’t think it’s completely convincing. But at least it is presentable” should read “It is incongruous, but at the same time, when you look at it, you can tell . . . there was a sense of style there — there was a lot of skill put into it. It’s very cool and modern — cool in the sense of being refined, you know, the steel and glass, the thin skin. . .”
  • “You could make a good argument for making use of the Crosby house (which is the name of the older part), and getting rid of the rest; it makes good use of that space” should read “[Y]ou’ve got all that land south of the building, between Blunt and Parkhurst, basically a vacant lot. . . . . You could make a good argument for a building there that would use the old Crosby House (which is the old part of Blunt), get rid of the rest, and make much better use of that space.”
  • “Essentially it was built as a hotel, as part of the town” should read “[T]he Lodge . . . was built . . . effectively as part of the town, as a motel, and then used for a school purpose.”
  • “Wheelock set it out back in the 1730s” should read “It’s one of those things that Wheelock set out back in the early 1770s.”
  • “The only unfortunate thing is that it blocks access to the grad school . . . I think this is what lead Larsen to propose a large causeway to connect Thayer dining hall area with the graduate part of the campus” should read “The only unfortunate thing about it is that it kind of blocks easy access to the graduate schools. I think there was a plan by Larson in the 1920s that proposed a very long, high causeway or bridge that would have gone from Thayer Dining Hall, basically, across to the Engineering School.”
  • “Yes, I hope some of that area is preserved, in particular the buildings . . . should be preserved” should read “although I hope, certainly, that they preserve at least one of those if they do use their sites.”
  • “South Fairbanks being the first building designed and built by Charles Rich 1875” should read “He designed it in 1892 . . . [but] Beta , . . . did not build it until around 1903 [after the school had built several buildings designed by Rich].”

The Lodge will be demolished

Dartmouth acquired the Sargent Block, which contains the Hanover Inn Motor Lodge (Brooke Fleck, 1960), and it plans to redevelop the entire block. As with the South Block, this means demolishing most of the buildings.

Although the Lodge has been used for the last twenty years or so as a dormitory, it will be closed during the 2006-2007 year. The very attractive new campus map featuring dormitories also omits the Lodge.

These seem to be the first public signs that the Lodge is about to go. It will be interesting to see what the school builds in its place and how closely it follows the Town’s bold vision for the block.

[Update 08.03.2006: text corrected]
[Update 08.09.2006: “Sargent” added]

Design forecast released

The Office of Planning, Design & Construction has revealed an unusual schedule of all the buildings and other construction projects to be completed on campus through October, 2010. This comes with a larger version of the master plan than has been available in the past. The documents state that:

-Bradley-Gerry demolition will end during September, 2007.

-The Life Sciences Building, which will stand east of Vail/Remsen, will be built starting early during 2007, with design starting soon. No architect seems to have been announced yet.

-Design for the dining hall to replace Thayer Hall will begin this summer. No architect has been announced for this project either, although Centerbrook was involved in the master planning for the student center area.

Choates demolition plan confirmed; other changes

The Darmtouth passes along the information from Dean Redman that the school plans to tear down and replace each of the Choates, one building at a time. The school’s current interest in replacing the buildings, a departure from its mid-1990s plans to add to them, is no secret; the specifics of the method of destruction seem new.

Other information:

  • Not only new students but all students will be housed by class.
  • The two River Cluster dorms that will remain standing after the Tuck School’s expansion will be renovated as apartments.
  • Hitchcock Hall will be renovated.
  • Richardson Hall might be renovated as the new International House.
  • The Lodge and North Hall might be closed during the fall of 2006.
  • Dartmouth will demolish Brewster for the Hood Museum of Art expansion, as predicted by some of the Rogers Marvel master plans.

South Block planning hinted at

The logo of the South Block page for the school’s Real Estate Office depicts East South Street and Currier Place not as it is now (visible at the lower right of a current map) but as it would look after redevelopment.   Ramunto’s, Buon Gustaio and their neighbors currently stand on the site of the large building depicted at the left side of the proposal.   That building is considerably larger than suggested in the Downtown Hanover Vision plan but is not out of scale with others on Main Street.

Architect for new arts building

Perhaps the most architecturally-interesting news is the announcement that the school is selecting an architect for a new arts building, presumably in the vicinity of the Hood and Clement.

The College has given the go-ahead to begin building the Kemeny Center for the math department as well as an adjoining building for a group of academic institutes, according to President Wright.   Construction on the NoMa dormitories and dining hall will begin by the fall of 2004.   The addition to Sudikoff also will get underway.

South Block project

The South Block redevelopment project is accellerating; the school’s Real Estate site plans more information.

Plenty of projects are in the works, all summarized in the most recent master plan (June 2002): highlights include the design work pending for a modular addition to Sudikoff and the evaluation of sites behind Fayerweather Row for a Commons House.

Town zoning amendments

The Town voted down the amendments.   Backlash: Some Town residents propose to amend the town’s zoning ordinances to tighten limits on College construction: institutional buildings within 300 feet of a residential district would be limited to 45 feet in height (Warrant Article Eight) and set back at least 30 feet (Article 10); and parking facilities for 20 or more vehicles adjoining residential districts would be set back a sprawl-inducing 75 feet from the Districts (Article Nine).   The Town’s own Planning Board is asking voters to defeat the amendments, as does Provost Scherr in his lelter to the Planning Board.   The reduced limits would prohibit new construction from adopting the siting of such existing buildings as the Memorial Field stands, the College notes in a press release.   The Dartmouth also has a report.   Voting takes place May 13.

Facilities plan released

The facilities plan, “Dartmouth and the Upper Valley:A Special College and a Special Place” is on line and describes several interesting projects apparently not yet settled on, most notably a A “Commons House” behind Dartmouth Row that will provide social spaces.   Others include the renovation of Thayer Dining Hall for social and performance spaces; a Tuck residence hall adjacent Whittemore; 145 residential units in Grasse Road faculty/staff housing; 200 apartment units in Rivercrest, north of campus; and a parking garage south of Cummings for 750+ cars.