Landscape master plan

Saucier & Flynn offer a small version of what looks like a lushly-detailed landscape master plan for Dartmouth. The Tuck Mall portion is especially notable, since it shows the initial portion of the mall (what was the entire mall during the 1910s) as a broad academic field lined by paths, and only the more distant portion with a road in the center as is the case now.

The school put a sidewalk in on the north side of the mall last month, according to an article in The Dartmouth. The article did not note whether the sidewalk is the first step in implementing the master plan’s proposal for Tuck Mall.

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[Update 11.12.2012: Broken link to pdf below removed.]
[Update 07.24.2007: The Planning Board minutes of June 6, 2006 suggest that the sidewalk project is an implementation of the master plan.]

Interim dining hall to be built

The latest project schedule (pdf) provides for the construction of an interim dining hall to take up slack while Thayer is being replaced. This idea was mentioned more than a year ago in The Dartmouth.

It is not clear whether the building itself will be temporary, although the short construction time suggests that it will be. The more temporary it is, the more interesting its siting might be…

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[Update 11.12.2012: Broken link to news article fixed.]

Campus planning

A few well-illustrated recent studies share a recognition of the urban nature of the college campus:

  • R.M. Kliment and Frances Halsband (designers of Burke Laboratory) propose a pragmatic route called “The Walk” (pdf) running through several varied urban blocks to tie together isolated properties owned by Brown University.
  • Yale’s extensive “Framework for Campus Planning” (pdf) by Cooper, Robertston & Partners maps the trash-collection routes of Yale’s campus while noting that most buildings there have university names as well as street addresses; the scale comparison of Yale to the other Ivies (including “Dartmouth University”) is interesting. The plan covers signage, noting the six official typefaces and proposing a unified system. Cooper, Robertson is also working on Harvard’s huge Allston expansion.
  • Oxford has a master plan by Rafael Viñoly for the site of the Radcliffe Infirmary, up by the Royal Oak pub. It offers several Parisian blocks lining pedestrian avenues that focus on the Radcliffe Observatory, which is the chief building of Green Templeton College (Wikipedia).

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    [Update 11.12.2012: Broken links to “The Walk,” Cooper, Robertson, and Allston fixed; broken link to Oxford plan pdf replaced with link to website; broken link to Green College replaced with updated link to Green Templeton College.]

    War Memorial Garden created

    The Zahm Memorial Garden, which filled the sunken space in front of the Hinman Boxes alongside the Inn, has been redesigned as the War Memorial Garden by Saucier + Flynn. The WWII/Korea memorial, a granite plaque, has occupied the end wall of the Inn since it was moved from under the Hood’s upper bridge in the early 1990s. The school moved the Vietnam Memorial, a sculpture, from the Collis Center to the garden. The Class of 1945 also gave the garden a plaque.

    Landscape projects explained

    Landscape architects Saucer + Flynn have posted new information including descriptions of eight projects for Dartmouth as well as landscapes for North Park Street Graduate Student Housing, 7 Lebanon Street, the DHMC, projects in Centerra, and the Sphinx.

    The firm also designed a wrought-iron fence for Skull & Bones in New Haven, which is not the kind of landscape project you see every day.

    Master plan to be updated

    The Trustees recently discussed updates to Lo-Yi Chan‘s 2001 master plan and the designs for the Visual Arts Center, the Life Sciences Building, the Class of 1953 Commons, and the New Thayer Dining Hall (press release).

    Peter Bohlin, whose firm is designing the Life Sciences Building, designed a nature center building for the Vermont Institute of Natural Science not far from Hanover in Queechee, Vermont.

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    [Update 11.12.2012: Broken link to VINS pdf replaced with generic link to website.]

    Athletic bubble will not happen

    The possibility of building a temporary bubble (an Air-Supported Structure) over one of the Chase Fields for football practice was discussed during the winter (The Dartmouth) and covered conclusively by the very active Big Green Alert Blog (earlier and later stories). Bubbles turn out to be beautiful (as at the Stadium) but quite expensive.

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    [Update 11.12.2012: Broken links to news article fixed and to Stadium Bubble replaced.]

    Where is Sand Hill?

    Landscape architects Winston Associates announced during 2004 that Dartmouth had selected Winston and Wolff-Lyon to plan a 200-unit Sand Hill neighborhood that would include an integrated parking/transit transfer center.

    Sand Hill does not seem to be a prominent landmark in Hanover or Lebanon. A Parking Committee Recommendation describes Sand Hill as an undeveloped site with room for 450 parking spaces, while the OPDC parking spreadsheet (Excel file) indicates that 300 new parking spots are expected to open in the Sand Hill Lot during fiscal year 2007.

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    [Update 11.17.2012: Broken link to Winston link really fixed.]
    [Update 11.12.2012: Broken Winston link fixed.]

    Dartmouth opens tech incubator

    The Route 120 tech incubator known as the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center in Centerra Resource Park [no website left] looks interesting as depicted on the website of its designers, UK Architects of Hanover.

    Construction began in August 2005 (pdf) and finished last fall, according to a thorough article in New Hampshire Business Review.

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    [Update 11.11.2012: Link added for DRTC; broken link to Batelle pdf regarding start date removed; broken link to NHBR replaced.]

    Upper Valley Rowing Club Boathouse projected

    The boathouse of the Upper Valley Rowing Club, formerly the Dresden Rowing Club, is projected to open this year near the Wilder Dam. It appears in a rendering by U.K. Architects of Hanover.

    The Connecticut Valley Spectator wrote on the club’s growth, reprinted in Rowing News.

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    [Update 11.12.2012: Broken links to firm site fixed and Rowing News omitted.]
    [Update 01.24.2007: Link to firm’s site added.]