The half-hour film An Unlikely Cathedral: Moosilauke, Dartmouth and the Ravine Camp 1909-1939 (1999) is available for download from Google Video.
Moosilauke Ravine Camp film available
Reply
Category Archives: preservation
Hood Museum “sibling” in Virginia
While Charles Moore and Chad Floyd were designing the Hood Museum at Dartmouth during the early 1980s, they were also planning a renovation of the historic market building in Roanoke, Virginia. Several elements of that sibling project survive in the market and are unmistakably Moore:
The Campus and the Segway
Sphinx is first on the National Register
The Sphinx Tomb (William Butterfield, 1903) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places last March. It is the first building related to Dartmouth College or located in central Hanover to be listed. The only other building in Hanover Township to be listed so far is the Great Hollow Road Stone Arch Bridge over Mink Brook, which was listed in 1997.
Alumni Gym roof trusses exposed
The Alumni Gym construction updates page has two construction photos. One photo shows the Michael Pool with the airy and astonishing arched steel roof trusses now exposed. It is difficult to believe that they were covered once.
St. Thomas renovation photos available
More information on the St. Thomas project (earlier post): The addition was designed by architect Richard Monahon, Jr., of Peterborough, N.H., in association with Haynes & Garthwaite Architects of Norwich, Vt. Excellent Richard Frutchey photos accompany Jack DeGange’s article in Trumbull-Nelson’s Constructive Images (Fall 2003). Construction photos are found in T-N’s newsletter.
Transformation planned for Baker’s main hall
Less expensive than the chance to rename the Medical School is the chance to rename the main hall of Baker Library, at $10 million. The hall will be refurnished as a “Scholars’ Green,” a sort of slightly busy study room. Since the card catalogs were moved out, the place has seemed rather empty, and having something like another Tower Room would be nice. With Novack just downstairs, there would be no need to put in a screaming espresso machine.
The granite post on North Main
A granite post on North Main Street (visible to the left of the pickup in a Math Department photo) has been left up during the construction of the latest building adjacent to it, Kemeny Hall. The post appears to be the last surviving element of confectioner E.K. Smith’s 1868 house.
[Update 12.31.2006: construction photos showed the post lifted out of the ground, and photos of the completed Kemeny Hall do not show it.]
Recreating historic time-sharing computer system
This is historic preservation for the twenty-first century: a group has formed to recreate the first Dartmouth Time-Sharing System, which started in 1964 in the basement of College Hall on a GE-235 computer (used for executing programs) and a GE DN-30 (for communicating with the remote teletype terminals).
The construction boom
In a speech to the faculty on October 31, President Wright announced: “I think we can confidently say that there has never been as much construction at any one time in our history.” Below is an excerpt from his speech as it relates to each future building project, with speculation about the architects added. In the context of architecture as a world art form, the most important project is the first listed here; the project that is most important to the school is listed second:
- “We are already in the planning stage for the visual arts center and will be continuing that process during the coming months.”
–Designer: Machado & Silvetti - “In the area of student life we are also in the final stages of planning a new dining hall north of campus, and a replacement dining hall at the current Thayer Dining site. The Class of 1953 has provided the funding for the north of Maynard Street facility, which will include space for graduate students. The dining projects will be staggered and will cause some disruption as we will need to complete the north of Maynard project before we begin at the Thayer site.”
–Class of ’53 Dining Hall designer: presumably Moore Ruble Yudell
–New Thayer Dining Hall designer: possibly Centerbrook - “The Tuck School has plans for a living and learning center and they are moving forward with that aggressively. They already have most of the funding in place and are working on construction design, with the intent of starting construction during the second half of next year.”
–Designer: Goody Clancy - “The Medical School is moving ahead with their plans for a translational research building to be constructed near the hospital in Lebanon.”
–Designer: possibly SBRA - “The Grasse Road III project, currently before the town for approval, will provide more affordable housing than can be found in the local market.”
–Designer: unknown, possibly William Rawn Associates - “The life sciences building has been a challenge both in terms of fundraising and planning. Our original notion of a shared laboratory facility with the Medical School has evolved, and we are now thinking about a facility on the Hanover campus that will be primarily for the Biology Department, with only some classroom and meeting space for the Medical School. While this remains one of my very top priorities for fund raising, we are also looking at ways to use debt financing and internal resources to ensure that this project moves forward in a timely fashion.”
- “I have asked the Provost to review plans for renovation of the Dartmouth Row buildings and Carpenter Hall.”
Strong Memorial Building
Smith & Vansant Architects of Norwich have remodeled and added a new rear facade (2000) to the Robert Strong Memorial Building (1959) of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, across from the Hop.
Front (north) and side (west) facades of Strong Memorial
The Gym’s stair
The Athletics website has an update on the Gym renovation. One of the photographs shows the upper drill hall, which the project will return to the industrial space it really is.
One of the first things the College did when it took over the Gym from the alumni was to add a central north stair to the eastern and western runs that already led to the main entrance. Now the school is replacing that narrow central run with a single broad main stair and substituting bicycle racks for the eastern run and a ramp for the western (see plan [pdf]). One expects that the ramp nevertheless will see the greatest use, since most people arrive from the west. The chunky cornerstone, laid by President Ernest Fox Nichols at his inauguration on October 14, 1909, may be obscured by the ramp.
Sherman House addition
The Native American Studies Department anticipates a substantial addition to Sherman House (mentioned):
Front (west) and side (south) facades of the Frank Asbury Sherman House (1883)
Landscape architecture
Lebanon landscape architects Saucier + Flynn, analysts of Dartmouth’s landscape history and designers of the landscape for Whittemore Hall, are designing the environs of the new MacLean Engineering Sciences Building at the Thayer School.
Hopland planning
The firm of Jonathan Marvel ’82 (Rogers Marvel) has made available photos of a model of their master plan for the arts district (ca. 2002). The design foresees addition to the east and west ends of Spaulding Auditorium, the replacement of the Hop studios (and Charles Moore’s Courtyard Cafe), and, most notably, an extension of the Hop’s entrance facade to the west that would double the width of that facade on the Green and provide much-needed infill for the gap in the street line.
The Hood Museum would be extended south to Lebanon Street. A view to the southeast from near the site of Brewster Hall allows a glimpse through this Hood extension and into the courtyard. Though a master plan is only a projection, the Visual Arts Building on Lebanon Street is in progress by Machado and Silvetti.
[Updated 08.30.2005.]
Photos of campus elms
Wayne Cripps makes available dozens of photos of Elms of Dartmouth, including photos of the two most important ones: the Hikers’ Elm at the southwest corner of the Green, and the Parkhurst Elm.
Serry’s Building
Dartmouth has purchased Serry’s on Lebanon Street (The Dartmouth, Valley News) and the building appears to be undergoing a major renovation:
