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.

Planning office renamed

Baker post-renovation

Three views of the renovated Baker Library:

Dartmouth photo

The welcome desk above follows almost exactly the form of the earlier circulation desk, but with paneling depicted rather than attached. Now patrons enter the Berry addition through the librarians’ old passage to the stacks. Note the new colors for the library’s main hall, presumably based on historic colors.

Dartmouth photo

The reflection prevents this photo from showing that one of the display cases has been removed to make a window onto the passage leading back to Berry.

Dartmouth photo

As another local instance of outside becoming inside, an exterior wall of the original Baker stacks now lines the passage to Berry. VSBA installed a door here.

Varied notes

Small updates:

  • Fred Wilson‘s new reinterpretation of the Hood’s collection opened on October 1.
  • The College has long considered serving beer in the future north campus dining hall.
  • The Dartmouth notes that work on the Gym continues and should end by April.
  • The Dartmouth notes that Chi Gamma Epsilon and Bones Gate have reopened after their
    building code renovations and additions.
  • Dartmouth Life has a roundup of current construction projects.   The links at the bottom are
    to unique articles rather than the Facilities Planning Projects Page.
  • The academic projects of Visual Arts Building architects Machado and Silvetti includes chiefly Princeton’s Scully Hall (1998) (more) and — more remarkably — a 1992 parking garage there.