The next Visual Arts Center

Posted on 11.06.2012 by Regisseur

I. Introduction

The nearing completion of the Visual Arts Center points up the current underuse of the site next door at the corner of Crosby and Lebanon Streets.

Existing conditions. All maps based on official campus map (pdf).

This is a large and important site. Whatever building goes here — let’s assume it is an arts-related building — will be visible to visitors arriving on Lebanon Street. It will need to be a gateway building, as the 2000 downtown Hanover plan illustrates so thoroughly. The Rogers Marvel 2002 Arts Center Analysis (pdf) also emphasizes the potential of this site on page 38.

author photo of Crosby and Lebanon Streets, 2006

View to the northwest showing the corner, 2006.

The first impulse is to follow the footprint of the existing low-scale facilities building. But this site is not only large, it is also unusually malleable. The college and town might be able to relocate Crosby Street in radical ways to completely reshape the ground available for the gateway building.

Why might Crosby be changeable? Because it has been changed in the past. Crosby Street was first laid out in 1872, to separate the state farm on the east from the state college dormitory site and other buildings on the west.

Crosby Street originally ran straight through to Lebanon Street. It was not until the early 1960s that Crosby’s southern delta was given its current incongruously suburban form. When Dartmouth sought permission to close down South College Street for the Hopkins Center, the Town asked Dartmouth to rework Crosby Street in return, aligning the street with Sanborn Road to form an ex post facto four-way intersection.

View to the north showing the front (west) facade of Memorial Field, 2006. The sidewalk preserves Crosby’s original alignment.

Should we worry about Sanborn Road if Crosby is realigned? No. In fact, the downtown Hanover plan proposes in text and an illustration that Sanborn Road be blocked off. Instead, Hovey Lane will give access to this neighborhood through a short outlet punched through to South Street (see map below).

Would the abandonment of Crosby Street’s current alignment open up any possibilities for a college building on the corner? Each of the following proposals assumes that McKenzie Hall/Shops on Crosby is preserved; Sanborn Road is rerouted; and commercial buildings are built on the college land along the south side of Lebanon Street.

II. The Maximum Arts

The gateway building could expand to fill all of the empty land added to the corner:

The maximum arts proposal.

This plan would block an important view of Memorial Field and make Crosby Street into a narrow tunnel. A good use of space, but not good preservation or townscape.

Some variation on this plan, however, might be a good one:

Variation on the maximum arts proposal.

III. The Minimum Arts

Crosby could be pulled to the west, adding a big empty lawn in front of Memorial Field:

The minimum arts proposal.

This plan would not make efficient use of space, and its creation of new lawns would not actually improve the view of Memorial Field.

IV. The Square and Temple

A big public square could be carved out of the surrounding buildings:

The square and temple proposal.

If the big square feels barren, a little temple that shares an alignment with nothing else could be dropped down in front of Memorial Field.

This plan would take advantage of the interesting fact that both Memorial Field and St. Denis Roman Catholic Church were designed in the early 1920s by Jens F. Larson. The two buildings appear to be perpendicular to each other, both aligned with Crosby Street.

View to the southeast showing north (front) and west facades of St. Denis, 2006.

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[Update 11.17.2012: Broken link to Memorial Field image fixed.]

Details on Centerbrook’s master plan for the Hood expansion

Posted on 13.05.2012 by Regisseur

Centerbrook’s page for its master plan for the Hood suggests that the existing connector to Wilson Hall could be preserved, and it shows the new addition as rising behind the connector.

Rough sketch of Centerbrook proposal. Base plan from Rogers Marvel 2001 Hood Program Study (pdf).

The addition will obscure most of the front of the Hood Annex, but it will be largely hidden from the Green. In this conceptual plan, at least, the addition is given a signpost in the form of a sort of Joseph Hoffmann ziggurat.

This plan is only a general guide, but it suggests that the preservation of the Wilson Hall entrance is a lost cause. The second and third images on the page show the entire entry below the arch — the stairs, vestibule, door, fenestration, and inscribed granite lintel — demolished and replaced with glazing.

Wilson Hall’s front door will become the Hood Museum’s new principal entry and be transformed by large glass windows to convey transparency and engage passersby on the busy campus green.

A Romanesque building is not the best place to look for transparency… Perhaps a projecting pavilion supporting prominent signage would be just as good, and would also preserve the building’s most distinctive elements. Living with an obtrusive but well-designed entrance and ramp structure outside the building would be a small price to pay to retain the experience of passing through the building’s substantial doorway, with its surfaces of oak, brick, granite, sandstone, and glass.

This master plan led to the Basis for Design for the expansion, and that document will lead to the designs that Williams and Tsien are now beginning. Little more than the general siting of the addition is likely to carry over from the master plan.

More details on that Basis for Design from Art New England (pdf), published a while back:

We intend to go back to the original skin of the building by tearing out the offices and dropped ceiling and returning the Picture Gallery to its original state.

Hood Director Matthew Taylor is referring to Wilson Hall. That link is found in the Hood’s comprehensive page of links about the selection of Williams and Tsien.

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[Update 03.28.2016: Broken code in Hoffman link fixed.]
[Update 01.13.2013: Broken link to Palais Stoclet image replaced with Hoffman link.]

A Ledyard Canoe Club addition?

Posted on 11.05.2012 by Regisseur

Alumna Emily Singer Yen has posted an impressive portfolio that includes a set of 2010 designs for what appears to be a large addition to the Ledyard Canoe Club.

This is not simply a student project: the designer “[c]ollaborated and interned with the selected architect to prepare schematic designs for preliminary State and Town permitting meetings[.]” Back in 2010 Ledyard was raising money for the addition, and in February of 2011 the “rebuild” was said to be going ahead.

How “historic” is the Inn?

Posted on 07.05.2012 by Regisseur

The publicity around the Inn expansion constantly emphasizes the building’s “historic” nature. The label seems to come from the Inn’s inclusion in 2011 in the Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

How does a hotel get into the program?

To be nominated and selected for membership into this prestigious program, a hotel must be at least 50 years old, listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or recognized as having historic significance.

The nomination form states that “Properties must be a minimum age of 75 years” under the blank for “Year originally built.”

The main block of the Inn will not be 50 years old until 2016. The Inn is not listed on the National Register, and one doubts that any historian has determined the building to be eligible for listing. (If the dates on the main block and the subsidiary wing were swapped, that would be another story.) Nor does anyone, including the National Trust, appear to have recognized the Inn as having historic significance. The phrase “historic significance” refers to the fact that the building was “home to, or on the grounds of, a former home of famous persons or [a] significant location for an event in history.” This HHA definition is in line with one of the criteria for National Register eligibility.

What, then, did the Inn tell the National Trust in its application? Some clues might lie in the text of the HHA page provided for the Inn:

General Ebenezer Brewster, whose home occupied the present site of the Inn, founded the Dartmouth Hotel in 1780 but later [it] burned to the ground and was replaced two years later on the same site by the Wheelock Hotel.

As corrected, this sentence is adequate as an anecdote, although it makes one wonder who would care about something occurring “two years later” than an unspecified date.

To be a bit more accurate, the page might say that the inn established by Brewster was usually called Brewster’s Tavern. Around 1813, Brewster’s son replaced the building with a completely different building called the Dartmouth Hotel. That building burned in 1887 and was replaced in 1889 with a completely different building called the Wheelock Hotel. That building was demolished in the 1960s and is no longer standing:

Emil Rueb photo of Inn demolition, from the Flickr photostream of the Town of Hanover, N.H.

Mid-1960s photo by Emil Rueb of the demolition of the 1889 Inn, with the surviving 1924 wing visible in the background. Image from the Flickr photostream of the Town of Hanover, N.H. (where it is courtesy of Dena Romero).

To continue:

From 1901-1903, Dartmouth College carried out extensive renovations to the facility, which was then renamed the Hanover Inn.

This sentence could be worded better, but it is correct. What is not clear is why anyone would care about those renovations, since the renovated building no longer exists.

An east wing was added in 1924, followed in 1939 by an exterior expansion.

And that east wing is the oldest part of the Inn. The 1939 information is interesting but irrelevant.

In 1968 a west wing was added.

Another, more accurate way to put it would be to say that “in 1968, the historic 1889 Hanover Inn was completely demolished, leaving only the 1924 east wing.” The main block of the Inn today, the building standing on the corner, is not “a west wing” attached to something greater than itself: it is the Inn.

Before Dartmouth College became co-ed, the fourth floor of the Hanover Inn was a single women’s dormitory. The Inn provided chaperones for the single female guests.

These statements probably have some basis in fact. First, if the school was yet not co-ed, why were women living in a dormitory? Because they were Carnival visitors, in town for a few days each year. Second, if they were college-aged, why bother describing them (twice) as “single”? It cannot be meant to distinguish them from the veterans’ wives living in married students’ housing after WWII, since those women were not segregated by gender. Third, the statement about the chaperones is interesting, if true. But considering that Carnival dates at the Inn were not staying in a temporarily-cleared dormitory, and thus were paying for their rooms, the Inn must have found it cost-effective to station a few women in the halls to mind the furnishings.

The Hanover Inn is the oldest continuous[ly-operated] business in the state of New Hampshire.

That might be true, if the various hotels dating back to Brewster are considered as a single business. One might prefer Tuttle Farm, which has been operating since 1632 and apparently has been owned by just one family.

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[Update 07.14.2012: The Inn is now accurately emphasizing the fact that a hostel has existed on the site since 1780. See for example Dartmouth Now.]

Future excitement: the expansion of the Hop

Posted on 02.05.2012 by Regisseur

Dartmouth recently announced that it has “initiated a renovation and expansion project for the Hopkins Center and will be selecting an architect in the coming year.” Because the Hop is so large, loved, and important, this is sure to be an interesting project.

On the occasion of the Hopkins Center’s 50th anniversary, the alumni magazine has published a photo essay on the Hop of today and collected reminiscences.

Reading Jonah Lehrer’s New Yorker article mentioning the Pixar building and how Steve Jobs concentrated the restrooms in one place as a way of forcing interaction among employees reminds one of the Hinman Boxes and their placement in the Hopkins Center with the specific intention of exposing students to the arts.¹Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designed the 2002 Pixar headquarters, the most important Apple Stores over the years, and Dartmouth’s Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center.

The Black family’s gift for the Visual Arts Center includes the funding of an artwork by Ellsworth Kelly that will be attached to the east facade of Spaulding Auditorium this year (The Dartmouth). See this Street View for the likely site.

The publicity around the Hood expansion and the arts center refers to “Dartmouth’s new Arts District.” It seems that neither “Hopland” nor “SoWhee” has taken hold.

There is the challenge of adding to a notable building by a big-name architect, Wallace Harrison. The various firms doing careful insertions in and around the Harrison-planned Lincoln Center, including Tod Williams Billie Tsien, would be worth considering (Lincoln Center page, Times Topics).

Two recent master plans have proposed that the college graft a variety of additions onto the sides of the Hop:

The 2001 Rogers Marvel arts center master plan (pdf, see also additional information from the firm and Chad Smith, Architect).
The 2001 Brook McIlroy Downtown Hanover Vision plan, specifically the Spaulding Auditorium proposal.

It will be interesting to see where the new additions will go and how they will look. Will the Hop’s studio range really be demolished and replaced, as the Rogers Marvel plan proposes? Will the blank wall on Lebanon Street really get a row of shops, as the Brook McIlroy plan proposes? Will a northern addition expand the Hop proper toward the Green, alongside the original and iconic Moore Theatre? Stay tuned.

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[Update 07.07.2012: Link to DAM article added.]

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References
↑1	Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designed the 2002 Pixar headquarters, the most important Apple Stores over the years, and Dartmouth’s Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center.

A further update on the Inn addition

Posted on 28.04.2012 by Regisseur

The Valley News reports that the project’s first phase will finish by June, “even as the price of the project has skyrocketed and town officials say the college may have underestimated the scope of the work.” Google’s Street View sort of shows where the addition is going. The Town’s Flickr stream has a mid-1960s photo that shows a clean Scout driving in the foreground and the original 1880s Inn being demolished in the background. The Inn’s 1923 wing, also visible, still stands.

Images of selective demolition are on line from contractor Dectam, including photos of some guest rooms without walls, only bathtubs; a team of workers going after the exterior concrete pavers; and the demolition of the lobby plaza area wall.

Dana Lowe, a subcontractor on the project, died on March 13th after a construction accident involving a crane and a scissor-lift (The Dartmouth).

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[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to Dectam replaced.]

The Inn’s new conference center to be named for John Minary

Posted on 26.04.2012 by Regisseur

From the April 23 press release (pdf):

November 2012: The Minary Conference Center opens, encompassing a grand ballroom with 3,933 square feet of meeting and event space capable of accommodating up to 330 people. The area also includes three executive meeting rooms.

The previous Minary Center was a 1928 house on Squam Lake that William S. Paley gave the college in 1970 honor of John Minary ’29. The college used it as a conference center until it sold the property in 2010.

Further details of the Inn’s novel features:

The November grand opening will introduce a new fitness center for Inn guests, 14 additional guest rooms including an oversized suite overlooking Main Street, for a total of 108 rooms. The Inn’s new signature restaurant, currently being designed by one of New England’s best-known chefs, will open, serving lunch and dinner in a prime location — at the corner of Main and Wheelock Streets. The smaller dining space will transition to serving breakfast only and will be available as additional reception space and for private events following the opening of the larger restaurant.

Hanover’s first purpose-built sorority house

Posted on 26.04.2012 by Regisseur

Although Dartmouth probably deserves criticism for what appears to be a failure to maintain Larson’s faculty apartment house at 2 North Park Street, the college might be working to redeem itself by building a quality replacement: a new sorority house designed by Haynes & Garthwaite of Norwich. The article in The Dartmouth has a photo of the house under construction.

The article notes that Alpha Phi was originally meant to occupy the historic house at 26 East Wheelock, next door to KKG (see Dartmouth Life, October 2008). Town zoning prohibited that change of use, and putting the sorority closer to the Green would seem to be better for the group and better for the campus.

The Black Arts Center will open in September

Posted on 22.04.2012 by Regisseur

At the end of last month Dartmouth has named its new visual arts building The Black Family Visual Arts Center (Dartmouth Now, The Dartmouth). The name honors Leon ’73 and Debra Black, who donated $48 million to the project.

The photo accompanying the article in The Dartmouth shows the building before its Norwegian slate exterior was attached. The Planner’s blog had a post in January about the slate going up. See also before and after Street Views of Brewster and Clement halls, the buildings that were demolished to make room for the arts center.

Yes, Wilson will become the Hood’s main entrance

Posted on 19.04.2012 by Regisseur

Dartmouth is putting into effect that Centerbrook master plan noted here on the 4th.

The college took proposals from four firms and today announced the selection of Tod Williams Billie Tsien as the architects for the project (Office of Public Affairs Press Release, Times ArtsBeat).

The project will add museum space behind Wilson Hall, renovate Wilson itself, and turn Wilson’s great arched entrance into the main entrance for the whole Hood Museum complex.

It is difficult to emphasize too much the importance of Wilson’s arch. When Dartmouth published some of Robert Frost’s reminiscences about how he decided, in Wilson Library, to become a poet, it titled the pamphlet “Under That Arch” (American Memory).

Luckily the granite lintel bearing Wilson’s name is not very prominent and can be left in place. A new glass entrance pavilion projecting from the arch or attached to the front of the building will be able to display Hood’s name. The firm’s David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (image) suggests one approach the firm could use.

During 1996 I spent about a month living in a Williams/Tsien building at U.Va. (Hereford College, 1992). I had some reservations about the overall project, a residential college on the back of a hill far from the center of campus (map). Because it is sited on a slope, it has trouble enclosing the sort of meaningful outdoor spaces you would expect: it is an arrangement of objects in a park. But I was impressed by the cool and serious Modernism of the individual buildings and their willingness to adopt a monumental scale when required (images from Tinmanic’s Flickr photostream and Wikipedia) . I liked the use of what I assume are local brick and slate on the exterior, and although the cinderblock interior was not ideal for a dormitory, it had a sternness that would be appropriate for a museum.

The firm’s work is serious and purposeful rather than frivolous, and in small doses it could create an exciting tension with Wilson’s Romanesque arches, the Hood’s Postmodern whimsy, and the Hop’s Modernist Expressionism.

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[Update 05.12.2013: Two links to Flash content on TWBTA site remove.]

[Update 07.07.2012: The Hood has a roundup of coverage of the announcement. Thanks to Alex Hanson for the quotes in the Valley News article (Hood-supplied pdf).]

Wilson Hall could become the Hood’s main entrance

Posted on 04.04.2012 by Regisseur

Wilson Hall, from American Memory

This announcement did not get much publicity when it was published almost a year ago, but it is noteworthy: Centerbrook has completed its master plan for the Hood Museum, and the plan contains a proposal to convert the adjoining Wilson Hall into museum space.

Wilson Hall was built as the college library and picture gallery. Its attic level, with iron trusses supporting a steeply-pitched roof, was designed for the display of paintings.

After the Butterfield Museum was demolished and Baker Library was built behind it, Wilson Hall became the home of the College Museum.

Charles Moore and the architects of Centerbrook placed their Hood Museum below Wilson Hall during the early 1980s, connecting the two buildings with a whimsically-busy enclosed staircase. The firm also renovated Wilson itself for the use of the Film and Television Studies Department.

photo of interior of Wilson Hall connector to Hood

Interior of Charles Moore’s Wilson connector, view to south, May 2006

The main entrance to the Hood, of course, was hidden from the view of passers-by. Visitors have to pass through the gate and walk up a broad ramp off to the side.

Now Centerbrook proposes to demolish (presumably) the Wilson connector and replace it with a new three-level addition. New galleries, offices, and classrooms could then go into Wilson and the addition, and Wilson’s presently shadowy entry arch could become the entrance to the whole museum complex:

With some improvements for access to the handicapped, Wilson Hall’s front door will become the Hood Museum’s new principal entry and be transformed by large glass windows to convey transparency and engage passersby on the busy campus green.

Although the large glass windows are a bit worrisome, the overall plan sounds like an excellent one. Will the Hood’s original ramp-entrance remain, or will it too be altered?

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[Update 04.05.2012: Wilson portrait gallery image added.]

Baker and Berry

Posted on 04.03.2012 by Regisseur

I. King Arthur Café.

Several weeks ago, this post was set to mention Norwich’s King Arthur Flour with a link to this Google blog post about the company. Since then, Google’s promotion of the article has become controversial. Let’s hope this ends up boosting business for King Arthur, which runs the café located off the catalogue room in Baker Library (King Arthur blog, The Dartmouth, Dartbeat).

II. Potential Baker alterations.

The Dartmouth reports that the Undergraduate Deans Office moved out of Parkhurst and into the library over the summer. The new offices appear to be temporary, with a large suite in Baker or elsewhere in the works:

These changes follow announcements made by College President Jim Yong Kim in May 2010 that the College would implement a new student advising structure beginning Fall 2011. The revamped advising structure would be modeled after a hospital triage system centralizing all relevant offices in one location where students could have their advising needs diagnosed, he said.

The deans are in Baker temporarily and will announce a new location in the spring (The Dartmouth).

III. The weathervane and the reference desk.

Ask Dartmouth has a post on Baker Tower’s weather vane. The big Berry reference desk recently was replaced with a new one of a different design (The Dartmouth).

IV. Comparing Baker and Berry.

VSBA designed major additions to two Larson buildings at Dartmouth. The first was the Thayer School addition, which was fairly popular and well-regarded when it opened. The Trustees praised it, probably thinking of the front part:

Thayer School addition, front (eastern) portion (Google Street View).

But the Thayer School addition also had a large rear component, a basic laboratory loft:

Thayer School addition, rear (western) portion (Google Street View).

The firm’s second major project was the Berry Library and Carson Hall addition to the Baker Library complex. Expected to carry over the classical pavilion from the front of the Thayer project, the firm instead replicated the loft from the rear:

Berry Library, front (north) facade (Google Street View).

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[Update 11.17.2012: Broken links to VSBA and Dartbeat fixed.]

On the renovated President’s House

Posted on 02.03.2012 by Regisseur

Haynes & Garthwaite designed the recent renovation of the President’s House on Webster Avenue.

In the long term, wouldn’t that building make a great center for student religious life (a new Edgerton House, for example) or a headquarters for an academic institute (a new home for the ISTS)? Either function would be able to handle the noise of Webster Avenue better than a college president can. Land is available to the west to add two more houses if more space is needed.

The president, in turn, could be installed in a new house in the residential neighborhood on Choate Road, near the Dean’s House. Purpose-built for fundraising, the President’s House could share the former Choates dormitory site with some appropriate new student housing.

map showing location proposed for new president's house

This map, based on the official campus map (pdf), shows Edgerton House, the President’s House, and the site proposed for the new President’s House in red. The new President’s House would anchor the northern terminus of the Great Mass Row Axis, also in red. Some of the other student religious centers are shown in blue.

Other possible sites for a new President’s House include the Dragon area, considered during the 1920s before the Webster Avenue site was selected; the south end of Occom Pond; the northwest corner of Rope Ferry and Clement Roads, a marvelous and prominent site that cries out for a building; and the northeast corner of Rope Ferry and Maynard.

Piazza Nervi

Posted on 27.02.2012 by Regisseur

I. Background

The site where Leverone Field House and Thompson Arena face each other across South Park Street, with a couple of houses in between, is an interesting one (Google Maps aerial, aerial, street view entering from the south). It is getting some attention these days.

Leverone Field House forecourt in June 2005

First, the transit report proposes a bus shelter here (pdf).

Second, Athletic Director Harry Sheehy commented in an interview in the Alumni Magazine that the school needs another field house. Chase Fields seems a likely site, and the building could even take over a part of the Thompson parking lot facing South Park Street.

Third, the owner of the private house just below the entrance to the parking lot, at 31 1/2 South Park Street, has demolished the building and is replacing it with a three-story building containing a dental office with apartments above (Planning Board minutes Sept. 13 (pdf); see also Planning Board minutes Sept. 6 (pdf)).

All of this activity gets one thinking about the two old houses in front of Thompson Arena at 25 and 27 South Park Street, both designed by Jens F. Larson.

Thompson Arena forecourt in June 2005 showing 25 and 27 South Park

On the one hand, the presence of the two houses preserves the historic appearance of the east side of the street and maintains the rhythm of solids and voids that stretches all the way up to Wheelock Street. Number 29, the Fire & Skoal house, is also a Larson product.

The view that the houses frame is interesting and surprising — it looks like there is some kind of hangar back there, and a walk along the beach-flat ground that reveals the ribs and upturned hulk of Thompson behind the brown shingled house can create a nautical impression. Removing the houses to create a plaza would be a bit arbitrary: very few people actually walk from the front door of Leverone to the front door of Thompson.

Site plan

On the other hand, the two Nervi buildings were meant to face each other, and the two houses have always been meant to come out. Master plans have long proposed that the houses be removed and a plaza be constructed to link the two concrete arenas. The 2007 Landscape Master Plan included such a proposal (pdf). The 2000 student life master plan (pdf) notes that the entry into Thompson Arena is obscured by existing houses along Park Street:

There are, however, opportunities to reinforce the entry to Thompson Arena by moving or demolishing the College-owned houses on Park Street in front of the current entry. Doing so would relate the Arena to its cousin, Leverone Field House, both designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, and complete an intention planned but never realized.

II. Proposal

The two Larson houses at 25 and 27 could be moved across the street, above Cobra, and a plaza could be built in their place.

Proposal

The plaza would be difficult to make uniform in footprint. The two Nervi buildings do not face each other directly. Each stands a different distance from the street and rises to a different height.

Piazza Nervi would become the student entrance to the whole Chase Fields complex. Pedestrians walking down Park Street would swing diagonally across the Thompson forecourt and then head eastward. The present route into the parking lot is relatively convoluted and disappointing.

As a bonus, the piazza could tie into a new path cut westward through the Crosby-Park block. The need for this path to Lebanon Street, the only cross-block route between Wheelock and Summer Streets, has been obvious for years, and the Ped/Bike Master Plan released in October (pdf) recommends it. A long brick wall built to shield the neighbors’ houses could serve as a venue for a horizontal climbing race put on by the DOC: speed-bouldering.

III. Conclusion

The new piazza would be the first work of architecture of any kind in Hanover — whether a plaque, monument, room, or building — dedicated to an architect.

It would make a nice gateway for drivers entering the campus from the southeast. That might be its most important function.

The danger is that Piazza Nervi would be a windswept Modernist wasteland: there is a fine line between minimalism and barrenness. But something good is possible.

Thompson Arena side entrance in June 2005

Leverone Field House front facade in June 2005

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[Update 11.17.2012: Broken link to oblique image fixed.]

[Update 06.10.2012: Link to and quote from 2000 master plan added. Thanks to Big Green Alert: The Blog for the link here and ideas.]

More on the Inn addition

Posted on 25.02.2012 by Regisseur

The rising cost of the Inn addition has been controversial lately, and The Dartmouth now has an article about it.

It seems strange to say that “[g]reat effort has been made to preserve the Inn’s exterior” when that exterior is undistinguished at best. Perhaps this is a reaction to negative comments from alumni, cited in a previous post.

The four buildings involved here may be seen in the plan provided by Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.:

The west wing of the Inn (Larson & Wells, 1923), built with a donation from Randolph McNutt, is historic but undistinguished. It will contain the prefunction room and restrooms as shown in the plan.
The Lang Building (Larson, 1937) faces Main Street at the southwest corner of the site (the upper right of the plan). It is both historic and well done and is worth preserving. Its upper level will be given over to hotel rooms.
The Hopkins Center (Harrison & Abramowitz, 1959-1962) is a notable building by a world-class architect and must be modified carefully.
The main block of the Hanover Inn (William Benjamin Tabler, 1966-1967) is both unhistoric and undistinguished. While fairly effective at disguising the great bulk of the hotel, the Inn is only nominally Georgian in style.

Detail of plan of addition to Hanover Inn by Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.

Detail of plan of Inn addition by Cambridge Seven.

The comment about preservation is especially interesting in light of the fact that one of the Cambridge Seven images proposes to add shutters to the windows of the main block:

Detail of perspective view of Hanover Inn by Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc.

Detail of perspective view of Inn by Cambridge Seven.

(Another view by the firm shows the Inn without shutters added.)

Big Green Alert: The Blog has a couple of construction photos.

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[Update 11.17.2012: Three broken links to C7A images removed, two replaced with generic links to firm page.]

Interesting links with some connection to Dartmouth or the Granite State

Posted on 02.02.2012 by Regisseur

Inside Higher Ed has a review of Bryant Tolles’s new book, Academic Architecture in New England. The book, based on Tolles’s 1970 dissertation, provides the best coverage available anywhere of Dartmouth’s original buildings.
A new book about the work of alumni firm Rogers Marvel is available.
Dartbeat has a map of warmcuts around campus. What is a warmcut? It’s a shortcut that won’t save you time but will let you stay indoors as much as possible.
The college publicity office has an article on the 50th anniversary of the Hanover Conservancy, formerly the Hanover Conservation Council. The group manages the Mink Brook Nature Preserve and other areas.
The Four Aces Diner in West Lebanon has reopened (Valley News).
Eli Burak, whose work has been linked here, is the new official college photographer following the retirement of Joseph Mehling (The Dartmouth, Facebook video (via Dartmouth Now)).
The story of the Chicken Farmer I Still Love You graffito, in the Valley News.
Dartmouth’s investment in sustainability (The Dartmouth) is likely to create problems when it encounters the college’s interest in preserving the historic windows still found in many campus buildings.
A solar-powered blue emergency phone (Dartmouth Planning).
Historic photos of Main Street businesses. Note the Dartmouth Bank Building before the arches were added to the front and after the arches were added (but before the building was raised by one level). More of this building and others north of Lebanon Street appear in a slide show from the Hanover Bicentennial parade on July 4, 1961 (via the Planning blog). Also in the slide show is an interesting shot of the buildings that preceded the Nugget Arcade.
Is the Watershed Studio’s listing of a Ledyard Canoe Club project a reference to a replacement building, a renovation, or something else?
The Co-op Food Store at the roundabout on Lyme Road is the subject of some detailed information provided by ORW.
In Norwich, Vermont’s ex-village of Lewiston (see the Rauner post) is a street that was recently named Ledyard Lane (Google Maps). The street leads to the depot, which is still standing, and one presumes it was previously called Depot Street. How strange to see John Ledyard’s name migrating via the bridge across the river to a site he had nothing to do with.
An interesting granite monument is set in the ground at the northwest corner of Lebanon and Summer Streets (Google Street View). The “H” must stand for Hanover, but why here? Is it a former town line? Doubtful. Perhaps a former corner of a town-owned parcel.

Monument at Lebanon and Summer.

The Rauner Library Blog has a post on the development of the Synclavier and the origins of the Bregman Electronic Music Studio.
The latest college map (pdf), released in August of 2010, is the first to show the LSC, ’53 Commons, the VAC, 4 Currier, and other novelties. The map also strangely misnames more than a dozen Greek houses in an apparent attempt to Romanize or transliterate the Greek characters of their names (via Jonathan). Visually, the map might be improved if the ground were shaded and the symbols indicating accessible entrances and restrooms were made less obtrusive. And one might hope that the mustard yellow of the buildings could be replaced with gray, brown, or green.
Dartmouth has been digging up the small lab animals that were buried in mass graves at the Rennie Farm during the 1960s and 1970s (Valley News).
Dartmouth Now writes about the last male descendant of Eleazar Wheelock.

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[Update 11.17.2012: Broken links Rogers Marvel and warm cuts fixed.]

Fullington Farm yet closer to becoming a rowing venue

Posted on 29.01.2012 by Regisseur

Discussions and controversies continue to slow the plan of the friends of Hanover High rowing to turn a part of Fullington Farm into a boating headquarters (Valley News article, Planning Board minutes Sept. 6 (pdf), Valley News article 1, article 2, Friends).

The Valley News noted on December 16 that the crew was allowed to move in but was denied permission to hold early-morning practices.

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[Update 06.03.2013: Broken link to Friends site replaced.]
[Update 05.12.2013: Broken link to Friends article replaced.]
[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to Friends article replaced.]

Dartmo.

The Buildings of Dartmouth College

Category Archives: preservation