Dartmo.

I. A recent one-paragraph review.

One alum quoted in the Alumni Council’s annual report (pdf) stated:

The north campus is appalling. The buildings look like something from USC and it is barren of trees. Further, the buildings pointlessly drift off to the right, making it an unsatisfying prospect. Seriously, from Berry north they need to plant several thousand trees to soften and obscure this severe, inappropriate landscape.

There is something worth discussing here. The unusual wording itself creates a number of questions:

1. What does “north campus” mean? Is it the area around Kemeny, the stretch from Berry to Moore, or the stretch all the way up to Gilman? The word “severe” in reference to the landscape suggests that he* is referring to the Kemeny area, which has low granite walls. But who knows?

2. How quickly are trees supposed to grow? Berry Row was recently a construction site. One supposes the same trees are to a) provide general natural beauty (“The north campus is barren of trees”) and b) obscure a landscape.

3. The buildings drift “pointlessly” to the right: does this mean that the buildings fail to lead to a point, such as the still-unbuilt terminus of the Berry Row axis, or does it mean that the alignment of the row should follow an unbending north-south line no matter what goes on in the surrounding streets? It is obvious that the curve in the line of buildings traces of the historic curve in the town’s street grid, which in turn follows the bend in the river.

4. Is the USC comparison useful? The rather attractive buildings of USC. do not look similar to the buildings of Berry Row and do not seem to have been designed by Moore’s firm, unlike, say, certain buildings of UCLA, UCSB (Kresge College, 1971), UCSC, and Berkeley (Haas School of Business, 1995).

II. Another take.

Kemeny/Haldeman seems successful. The building’s street facade is admirably modest in scale; the twin porticos are delightful. The way the building works with Sherman to bracket Carson Hall is important and it seems well done. The towers on the inside of the block are not as notable as they could be and disappoint somewhat. The handling of the termination of the main tower’s north facade might be a mistake: it is not much of a tower if it does not even meet the ridge of the roof.

The eccentric footprint of the McLaughlin Cluster has the potential to be too quirky for its own good, but it works; the apparently arbitrary inflection is not bothersome.

A brochure-quality view of McLaughlin captured by Google Street View looks to the south toward the towers of Sudikoff and Baker. The use of granite and white-painted brick, reminiscent of Dartmouth Hall, is appealing.

Street View has a photo of the hefty sculptural light-pier at Bildner’s front entrance.

The absence of shutters on McLaughlin is a bit of a let-down, but shutters seem to be the litmus test for traditionalism in Dartmouth buildings these days: Fahey-McLane was meant to be shutterless but got them anyway, according to one account, because they were important to a donor.

—————–

* Really a “he”? He seems to be under 40 (the youthful use of “seriously”) but might view himself as having the tastes of someone over 60 (the use of the antiquated “prospect” instead of “view”).

A remote tour of recent construction via Google Street View images made around August 4, 2009, judging from the Hop’s marquee:

• The north end addition to Theta Delta Chi (view to southeast);
• The east end addition to Gile and rear addition to Hitchcock (view to north showing Gile getting a new copper roof);
• Fahey Hall (view with Butterfield);
• The redone Tuck Drive/Tuck Mall intersection (view to north; the Google Maps aerial is older and shows Fahey-McLane under construction);
• The stair addition to the west end of Bones Gate (view to south showing unobtrusive one-bay addition);
• The Zeta Psi addition (view to south showing front of building with addition under construction);
• The Chi Gamma Epsilon fire stair (view to north showing roofed but unenclosed fire escape — wonder why other houses didn’t do this if they could get away with it);
• Kemeny-Haldeman (view to east; Carson terminates Webster Avenue and is framed by Haldeman and Carpenter);
• The addition to Tabard (view to south showing rear of building; the Google driver went down this unnamed alley by the Choates before thinking better of it);
• The addition to Phi Delta Alpha (view to south showing rear of interesting, almost agricultural addition);
• The new Phi Tau (view to southeast showing side; the end view to the north shows the building’s interesting proportions);
• Berry Row (view “down” to the south);
• The McLaughlin Cluster (view of “outside” to the northeast; views “down” to southwest and “up” to northeast).
• The New Hampshire Hall additions (view to southwest showing east end addition); and
• “Whittemore Green” behind Thayer School (views of landscape including flowers and curving paths; hmmm).

A press release on the names of the new dormitories includes two apparent firsts by Dartmouth: the first building, or part of a building, named for Samson Occom (Occom Commons in the McLaughlin Cluster) and the first building given someone’s first name or nickname: McLane Hall is still named for John Roy “Judge” McLane ’07, but it is switching to Judge Hall.

The school seems not to have announced very loudly at the end of last month that the new Tuck Mall dorms will be named (from west to east) McLane Hall and Fahey Hall.

What happened to the old McLane Hall in the River Cluster? It has been renamed Judge Hall.

The three remaining dorms in the new McLaughlin Cluster will be named Thomas, Goldstein, and Rauner Halls (see map). Rauner will be the northernmost in the eastern trio, of which Bildner and Berry were named previously; Thomas and Goldstein Halls will be the northern and central buildings, respectively, in the western trio, of which Byrne II already has been named.

The latest McLaughlin photos show the buildings starting to look like a real place, with the view of the corner of Maynard and College now recognizable.

Dartmouth announced today that Bruce ’78 and Diana Rauner and Jack ’74 and Debbie Thomas will have two of the three dormitories in one of the trios of the McLaughlin cluster named for them.

That leaves one building without a name…

This view from Gilman toward Baker last November showed the McLaughlin Cluster under construction. Dragon is at the far left and Sudikoff is visible in the gap between the new buildings. The view is a composite of photos taken remotely using the McLaughlin webcam.

• It seems that the the Facilities Planning Office (previously the Office of Facilities Planning?) has become the Office of Planning, Design, and Construction (see the website of September 2004, showing old name while accessing current images; the name of the site directory is still “~fpo”).

  The new name is clearer and more informative, but nothing beats the style of the design office that is associated with the Capitol in Washington: The Architect of the Capitol.

• The walls are up in the McLaughlin Cluster (webcam looking south from Gilman), being built by Engelberth
• Kemeny/Haldeman is in its yellow stage and the steel framing for the tower (no name apparently announced yet) is up (photos from the Math Department project site).
• The Dartmouth has more on Fred Wilson’s exhibition in the Hood and about the Hood.
• Skypic has available aerial views (1 | 2) of Dartmouth.

The view from a webcam shows the walls rising at the eastern trio of dorms in the McLaughlin Cluster.

The eastern and central dormitory trios of the McLaughlin Cluster under construction at the corner of Maynard and College Streets, designed by Moore Ruble Yudell with Bruner/Cott:

The Valley News reports on the largest construction boom in recent memory, with $180 million in College and Town projects underway.

The school has selected the names for one of two dormitory trios being built in the McLaughlin Cluster.   The three connected buildings will be called Berry Hall, Bildner Hall, and Byrne Hall II according to a press release.

Three families gave about $6 million each for the buildings: John and Shirley Berry, Charles Berry, and Roberta and George Berry ’66 funded a dormitory to be named for John W. Berry Sr. ’44; Joan and Allen Bildner ’47, Tu ’48 funded Bildner Hall; Dorothy and John “Jack” Byrne Jr. and their sons John Byrne III ’81, Mark Byrne ’85, Tu ’86, and Patrick Byrne ’85 funded Byrne Hall II.

The Review has posted its latest issue, which includes a list of projects underway, some stats for the north campus, and a thoughtful article on the new construction by Joseph Rago, who quotes Dean Redman on the planning of the new dorms north of Maynard: “We learned from our mistakes in East Wheelock[.]”

Remember, you heard about the “mini-mansard” here first!   (Actually, mini-mansard is probably not the right word, since the roof does not slope at the gable ends: perhaps it is a cryptogambrel?)

The Facilities Planning Office has posted a generous number of plans, elevations and perspectives of the McLaughlin dormitories.   In plan, at least, the composition looks quite a bit like an Oxford-style quadrangle, and each of the four interior angles is even made a bit different from its neighbors.   The axial landscaping and the emphasis on the central building in each trio, however, will probably make these dormitories evoke Ripley, Woodward and Smith Halls at Dartmouth more than any quad.

This month’s Dartmouth Life has an overview of the nine largest projects underway, with images of several of them.   Two that have received little press lately but seem to get the go-ahead here are the Visual Arts Center on Lebanon Street (Machado and Silvetti) and the Tuck School dormitory/classroom complex that sounds bigger than when first announced:

The facility will consist of three connected buildings: the east and west residential buildings, and the central classroom and learning bulding.

That facility will be connected to the existing Tuck complex and designed by the firm that designed Tuck’s most recent addition of Whittemore Hall [more], Goody Clancy.

Richard Burck Associates of Somerville Mass. are handling the landscape Design for the McLaughlin and Kemeny projects.

The Facilities Planning Office has views of the McLaughlin dorms up.

The new capital campaign seeks funds for dormitories and other buildings.

Construction is ongoing, The Dartmouth reports.

The school will break ground this month, The Dartmouth reports, for the new McLaughlin Dormitory Cluster north of Maynard Street, designed by Moore Ruble Yudell in association with Bruner/Cott.   The Tuck Mall dorm will wait until 2006, The Dartmouthreports.