Dartmouth demolished Brewster Hall and will tear down Clement Hall soon. The Dartmouth has a photo of the site after demolition. This is what Brewster used to look like:
Brewster Hall
Brewster gone, Clement next
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Brewster Hall
Category Archives: preservation
Brewster Hall
Buchanan’s hotel-like renovation is over
The Tuck School’s Whittemore Hall, which houses executives in the summer, has been compared to a hotel, but it acts as a dormitory most of the time. Buchanan Hall after the Truex Cullins renovation really does seem to be essentially a year-round hotel for executive education students. There is even a front desk. The firm has taken the building’s original (semi-budget?) modernism and polished it.
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[Update 05.03.2014: Broken link to Buchanan page replaced.]
Another ’boutique’ hotel update
Vermont Today states that the long-discussed hotel on South Street east of the Post Office parking lot is going ahead. Maine Course Hospitality Group is building it:
Detail of Maine Course website showing 6 South.
Construction will require the demolition of a building on the site.
Historic maps
Rauner’s blog describes a fantastic horizontal-scrolling map of the Connecticut River at Hanover (image). It was created by Robert Fletcher around the turn of the twentieth century and was found among some records of the Hanover Water Works Co. that the library received recently. The shallow box containing the map is portable, and the map contains a number of notes on related facts.
This map could be scanned, stitched together, overlaid with a current aerial, and made into a fascinating website. A lot of the landmarks noted by Fletcher have probably been under several feet of water since Wilder Dam raised the river in the 1950s; yet the River was not pristine in Fletcher’s time, and he notes that the low-water level at Ledyard Bridge was raised by six feet by the dam at Olcott Falls (Wilder).
A UNH news story notes that one of the large and notable relief maps of the state created by Dartmouth’s Professor Hitchcock in the late 1870s is being restored. This particular map came to UNH in 1894, so it is probably not the one depicted on the east wall of the Butterfield Museum after that building opened in 1899.
Thayer Dining Replacement and ’53 Dining Commons both canceled
The Dartmouth reports that the freestanding Class of 1953 Commons and the Thayer Dining Hall replacement, projects that have been on hold for about a year and a half, have both been canceled. The funds raised for 53 Commons will fund the renovation of the original Thayer Hall instead.
Dartmouth has frequently wrestled with the question of whether to have a single main dining hall or a widely-scattered group of two or more dining halls. Commons in College Hall was the only dining hall from 1901 to 1937, when Thayer Dining Hall opened. But Thayer was just across the street from Commons, and connected by a tunnel — the centrality remained.
Thayer Dining Hall
About ten years ago, Dartmouth decided to put a new dining hall at the north end of campus as the centerpiece of a group of new dormitories and a polar counterpart to Thayer (see the North Campus Master Plan). Moore Ruble Yudell with Bruner/Cott designed the building, which was to be called the Class of 1953 Dining Commons and can be seen in a series of sketches from the spring of 2007.
Detail of photo of model of 53 Commons, designed by Moore Ruble Yudell with Bruner/Cott, from 1953 Commons Sketches
This building and a temporary dining hall were to relieve pressure from Thayer so that Thayer could be demolished and replaced by a building designed by Kieran Timberlake. Known in the collegiate context for spare stone dormitories and a glass-walled dining hall at Middlebury, Kieran Timberlake considered renovating Thayer in its Basis of Design (November 3, 2006). The firm’s final proposal involved the complete replacement of Thayer with a new building set back from Mass Row.
Detail of planning alternate 1a from Kieran Timberlake Basis of Design
The firm produced preliminary designs (The Dartmouth) before Dartmouth put the project on hold in the spring or summer of 2008.
Some concern over what appeared to be the Thayer Replacement’s poor preservation practice was expressed here. So although one wishes the circumstances were otherwise, it is good to see that Thayer will survive. No mention has been made of who will handle the renovation, but judging from their stylish renovations of Davenport and Pierson Colleges at Yale, Kieran Timberlake could produce a very interesting design.
[Update 01.17.2010: Both the article in the D and the press release note that Thayer will be renamed the Class of 1953 Commons. The release also emphasizes the preservation aspect and notes that work will begin this summer and end in 2011.]
Brewster Hall demolished, Clement Hall is next
Now that the Spaulding Auditorium loading docks have been reconfigured (see the Google Street View of the construction — Hanover is now available in Street View, by the way), the Visual Arts Center can go ahead as planned. William A. Berry & Son, Inc. is managing the construction. The architects’ project page has not returned yet.
Brewster Hall has been demolished, and Clement Hall will be torn down during the first week in February (The Dartmouth).
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[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to Berry & Son removed.]
The Dartmouth Institute of Health Care Delivery Science
A Valley News article reports President Kim’s suggestion that Dartmouth host a national institute of the science of the delivery of health care. One imagines that it would accompany or expand upon the existing Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. That institute is scheduled to occupy the postponed future Koop Medical Science Complex at the south end of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (map).
If not located at the hospital, however, such an institute would make an excellent candidate for placement north of the medical school, even on the golf course. It would not require parking for patients; it would benefit from its proximity to downtown — walkable if not convenient enough for a student function — and yet it would be indisputably part of the college.
To allay the concerns expressed here last year, this building and any other buildings on the site should be made to follow the form of the town, not the campus. A grid of streets with sidewalks and buildings, rather than a network of curving driveways with lawns, would promote density while acknowledging that the college does not expect students to walk this far from the Green on a regular basis. The buildings would harmonize with the campus without pretending to be a part of it — much more South Block than McLaughlin Cluster.
The Institute for Security, Technology, and Society could move to the site, along with other administrative offices now at remote locations, such as the offices in the bank building on Main Street and the Development Office, which is in Centerra.
The perfect completion of such a plan would involve the Hanover Country Club House. The club has wanted a larger and more convenient clubhouse for several years. A new east-west connector street at the north end of this expansion project, crossing the south end of the golf course between Lyme Road to Rope Ferry Road, could provide an excellent site for such a building. The clubhouse would occupy the north side of this street, looking up the stretch of greensward; the south side of the street would be a densely-built wall representing the end of the urban development of Hanover. Compare the fascinating conditions of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.
In Hanover, the clubhouse would stand on the north side of the northern cross-street, whichever was built:
Example of town-form development
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[Update 05.03.2014: Broken link to DIHP&CP facts and figures replaced.]
[Update 09.25.2010: With all this talk of buildings, it never occurred to me that the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science would be mostly on-line.]
[Update 02.06.2010: Map added.]
Varied topics
The Valley News has a story on an 1840s organ that ended up in a Wilder church (1890) and is now being restored. Wilder’s Congregational church (presuming that is the building) originally had very close ties to Dartmouth and Charles Wilder, donor of the funds for Wilder Hall.
The President’s House renovation is being “paid for by donors who want to take the cost — for which the college has received some criticism — out of the budget, and off the list of items raised whenever spending cuts are mentioned” according to the Valley News. The Dartmouth also has the story.
The Dartmouth noted that the frame of the Life Sciences building was topped out in mid-December.
The early-2000s “decompression” of dormitory rooms has begun to seem a bit luxurious. The college might increase income by expanding the entering class by about 50 students (The Dartmouth), a move that might require turning some doubles back into triples and so on.
Tuck Today has two glossy features related to its new buildings: Jeff Moag, “Dedicated to the Future,” and Christopher Percy Collier, “What Lies Beneath.” The architects (Goody Clancy) have photos of the buildings.
Collier’s article “It Takes a Village” in Tuck Today is about Sachem Village, the grad/professional student housing site in Lebanon. It mentions the predecessor of Wigwam Circle, the postwar temporary housing group behind Thayer School. It is also worth noting that Dartmouth built another group of similar portable buildings for married students next to the high school, called Sachem Village.
Daniel Stewart Fraser of Dan & Whit’s in Norwich (“If we don’t have it, you don’t need it”) has died at 96. The Valley News has a story.
Bevy King in West Leb is expanding (Valley News).
1903 Harvard-Dartmouth game ball now in Varsity House
The Valley News has a story on the recovery and restoration of the game ball from the 1903 Harvard-Dartmouth game. The game was especially notable because it marked Dartmouth’s first victory over Harvard and served as the dedication of Harvard’s new Stadium. The Library of Congress has links to a remarkable panoramic photo of the game.
The Stadium is the first major reinforced-concrete building in the country. When Dartmouth students held pep rallies under banners reading “On to the Stadium,” they were not referring to a site in Hanover: the were referring to the Stadium.
Hanover retail – sporting goods shops
Trumbull-Nelson’s Constructive Images, in explaining that Omer & Bob’s outdoor shop has moved out of Hanover, notes that there were about five ski shops in town in 1986, and none now. I haven’t been in the Mountain Goat to tell whether it’s an exception.
LPT to undergo renovation, emerge as “One Wheelock”
The Lone Pine Tavern, created in College Hall’s (ex-cafeteria?) basement as part of the 1994 Atkin Olshin Lawson-Bell renovation, has closed and will be replaced with something more cost-effective called One Wheelock, The Dartmouth reports. I remember buying the second beer served in the place, and although not the biggest fan of the name, I liked the change of atmosphere that it represented. It is hard to believe it has been fifteen years. One hopes that someone will document the room in a panoramic photo while the decor is still intact.
Researching the architectural history of New York
While the Office for Metropolitan History has — fabulously — made Manhattan new building application information available through a database covering the years from 1900 to 1986, the nineteenth century permits represent a larger project that is yet to be undertaken.
It turns out that the Internet Archive is hosting scanned and searchable copies of the Real Estate Record and Builders’ Guide from 1879 to 1922, each reporting new buildings, alterations, purchases, mortgages, and other transactions in detail. Searching for this journal returns a list of volumes available in pdf and other formats. The one unnumbered volume is 73 (1904), and volumes 26, 28, 30, 38, and 46 appear to be unavailable. Of those, volume 28 (second half of 1881) is available from Google Books.
Google Books also has volumes 5-6 (1870), 7-8 (1871), and 9-10 (1872).
A new list of about 675 Lamb & Rich projects should be available here in the next few weeks.
[Update 12.07.2009: It is more like 600 projects, and it is available at Lamb & Rich.]
[Update 02.14.2010: Reference to volumes 5-10 added.]
[Update 04.12.2010: Another good way to search the Record & Guide is to put this into Google:
site:www.columbia.edu “firm name”.]
Five unrelated topics
The Northeast Chapter of the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills has acquired some old textile machinery and hopes to restart a mill in Claremont (Valley News).
The short-term Memorial Field renovation is finishing and football has started (Valley News, Big Green Alert Blog).
Computers can compile multiple photographs of a single building into a three-dimensional model of that building; a lab at the University of Washington is using the millions of photos people have posted to Flickr to reconstruct entire cities (story at physorg.com). The lab has examples of several European monuments.
[Update 04.12.2010: The New York Times has a story on the “Rome in a Day” project that mentions the PhotoCity game.]
The Tuck School has started a Leadership Center (news release), and the Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (“the Dartmouth Institute”) is now being cited alongside Tuck, Thayer, and DMS as a graduate or research institution (Irene M. Wielawski, “Taking Charge,” Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (Sept./Oct. 2009), reprinted at Speaking of Dartmouth). The Dartmouth Institute was founded in 1988 and began its first degree-granting program in 2003.
The planning office has posted a presentation on parking [pdf], more interesting than you’d expect, and the College Planner has noted [Google cached version] that Dartmouth has maintained parking rates for a quarter-century.
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[Update 09.18.2016: Broken link to planner post replaced.]
[Update 07.06.2013: Broken link to PhotoCity game removed.]
Visual Arts Center gets planning permission
The Planning Board’s hearing of the VAC plans was delayed, and the Valley News gave the sense that some town residents wanted the Board to step outside its role and begin acting as an architectural review commission. But approval was not seriously in doubt when the hearing did take place (The Dartmouth, Valley News).
Town residents’ opposition seems to be consistently varied: some say the building is too urban, some not urban enough (or is inconsistent with the new-urbanist town plan). Some say it is too modern, some say it is not modern (or original) enough. The most interesting quote in the VN story is the criticism that the building is “a shameless copy of architecture that has existed in this country for decades.” Those words are usually used against traditional styles such as neo-Georgian (sometimes “pseudo-Georgian”) architecture as seen in buildings like Brewster Hall, which is being demolished for the Visual Arts Center.
DHMC, construction, and suburbia
In February, DHMC postponed plans for new buildings, including the C. Everett Koop Medical Science Complex, but not the offsite Outpatient Surgery Center (2008-2010, SBRA) (Dartmouth Medicine; press release; mention in Vermont Today). The building presents an interesting study in urbanism: instead of adding the needed operating rooms to its existing medical complex, the hospital is placing them in a freestanding low-rise building very near by, either because the main hospital has run out of space (!) or because surgeons in training need an experience like that of a private practice.
Visual Arts Center finally going ahead
After postponing the decision, the Board of Trustees finally voted on June 12 to build the Visual Arts Center on Lebanon Street, designed by Machado & Silvetti Associates (renderings). Dartmouth’s largest-ever gift, a $50 million donation from an anonymous family, will allow the project to go forward.
Work on reconfiguring the nearby loading dock of Spaulding Auditorium to make space for the Arts Plaza begins on June 15, according to The Dartmouth. Studios will move from Clement to 4 Currier Street after it opens this fall, Clement (and Brewster) will be demolished, and construction on the Center will begin in the spring of 2010 and conclude in the fall of 2012 (capital projects schedule pdf).
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[Update 12.02.2012: Broken link to Arts Plaza section of Dartmouth Experience site removed.]
President’s House renovation
The Dartmouth reports on the $2.8m renovation of the President’s House on Webster Avenue. President-Elect Kim and his family will live at 6 Rope Ferry Road house until the work ends. The project is not on the OPDC’s projects page or the capital projects schedule (pdf).
Here’s a thought: since the house’s location on Webster Avenue has always been a drawback, why not use the house for some appropriate institute, or sell it for use as a new Edgerton House? It would be close to Aquinas House and the Roth Center. A new President’s House could be built on Choate Road in place of Brown Hall. Its public face on the road would respect the other large houses there, while its academic face would look directly down the Mass Row axis. It would be quieter and yet more connected to the College.
The mural in the Hotel Coolidge
The Valley News tells the story of the remarkable early-fifties murals in the good old (National-Register listed) Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction: they were painted by Peter Michael Gish of Dartmouth’s class of 1949. Gish is a former Marine who served as a combat artist as recently as Somalia.