Edward Gray’s article “American Arriviste” in Humanities 28:6 (November/December 2007) is about John Ledyard.

Jens Larson’s main or western stand at Memorial Field is a concrete grandstand screened by a brick facade overlooking Lebanon Street. The Big Green Alert Blog reports that the previously-announced Memorial Field project (construction to begin October 2008, occupancy September 2009, according to the schedule pdf) is more than just a renovation of the structure: the school will demolish the entire concrete stand and replace it with a new one, leaving the brick facade in place.

This project will make the stand more accessible, more comfortable, and less capacious. The likely drop in seating capacity, continuing the trend of the Floren-motivated shrinking of the East Stand, might be desirable. The green-paneled press box, which seems to be from the 1950s and is the latest in a series of expanding press boxes, also will be replaced. The replacement could be a harmonious brick design that responds to Floren, and if Centerbrook has a hand in the project, this result seems especially likely.

Memorial Field’s original West Stand as viewed from the head of the field, by Davis Field House. The distinction between the concrete stand and the applied brick facade or screen is evident. The replacement press box will probably be much wider.

The stand’s center bay contains the only “interior” and the only portion past the street front that is worth saving. This vaulted passage is the site of the memorial element of Memorial Field.

The concrete stand itself is utilitarian and not in the best condition.

The Collegiate Way links to an article in Portuguese on the University of Coimbra’s lost colleges (translation by Google). The university claims to be the oldest in Portugal, founded in 1290 (Wikipedia), and once had more than two dozen colleges (map) founded between 1527 and 1779. They were dissolved in 1834, however, and now some of their surviving buildings house university departments.

An article about the College Arborist mentions transforming the East Wheelock Cluster’s “quad” from mere grass into a somewhat unusual garden. The article also notes that the school trims the linden tree in front of the Hop with the Modernism of the building in mind, which is interesting.

ORW Landscape Architects & Planners of Norwich provide, among their transportation design examples, information about a project for Hanover: a set of street standards that fits with the Brook McIlroy plan.

The site includes drawings of a reworked south entrance into town (note the commercial building in the parking lot of Grand Union/CVS, as Brook McIlroy suggested); an eastern welcome by Memorial Field focused on a proposed corner tower and building on the very important site where the FO&M buildings are now; and two proposed street sections, one for Lebanon street with Brook McIlroy’s wide sidewalks for cafe seating.

The firm has also done a riverfront park design study, a trail plan, and a suburban development proposal in Lebanon, a proposal for corridor enchancements in Norwich, and a proposal for new buildings in downtown White River.

One of the new building groups out at the hospital is the Koop Center (SBRA, 2008-2010). See the floorplan (pdf). A view of the interior of the volume joining the center’s two wings, called LeBaron Commons, is available as well (pdf). One of the wings has a name that seems to be fairly new: the Williamson Translational Research Building.

For reference, this big addition seems to be at the bottom of the current hospital map (pdf).

A perspective drawing of the complex suggests the direction of the Medical School’s “Future Campus” (pdf).

Hitchcock Hall has reopened after an extensive renovation by Atkin Olshin Schade. The east-west hallway no longer has a plan shaped like a milk bottle. The Dartmouth explains the changes.

Dartmouth’s design office updated its complete list of projects in December (pdf). Renovations of New Hampshire Hall and the Inn are in the works, along with the creation or upgrading of a multipurpose sports field.

Dartmouth has also bought and is renovating the neighboring houses at 25 and 27 South Park Street and plans to rent each one to a sorority. Alpha Xi Delta will move from Webster Avenue, where it has rented the Beta Theta Pi House, and Alpha Phi will occupy a house for the first time, The Dartmouth reports. Both have been identified as designs of Jens Larson.

This is the front (west) facade of number 25.

This is number 27. To the right at number 29 is Fire & Skoal, also a Larson design.

The houses screen Thompson Arena.

Vox notes that South Block will be completed this summer and has an updated perspective sketch of the corner building that will occupy the site of Big Green Cuts and Ramunto’s. Amazingly, seventy people will live within the block, which must be a dramatic increase from the population before the redevelopment.

A 2005 presentation by Henry Bedingfeld, “English Grants of Arms in America,” summarized by the College of Arms Foundation, shows the surprising extent of the honorary grants of arms to institutions in the U.S. following a 1960 decision to begin making such grants. The list includes a number of schools:

• Georgia State College (1968)
• Hampden-Sydney College, Virginia (1976)
• Winthrop College, South Carolina (1980)
• Middle Georgia College (1983)
• George Washington University, Washington, D.C. (1997)

A sampling of the other institutions:

• Town of Kingston, North Carolina (1960)
• Prince George’s County, Maryland (1976)
• The Commonwealth of Virginia (1976)
• St. Thomas Church in New York City (1975)
• Rich’s Department Store, Atlanta (1967)
• The Mescalero Apache Tribe (1986)

Some of these recipients are surprisingly downbeat about their arms. Winthrop University, as it is called now, has one of those exhaustive graphic standards manuals (pdf) describing how to use its new shield-like logo, but it relegates its genuine coat of arms to one fuzzy black-and-white image at the back. The school’s “Treasures and Traditions” information pdf describes the coat of arms matter-of-factly and does not mention its origin in the College of Arms.

The Office of Publications’ portfolio is fairly new, and shows that the school continues to recognize the importance of good design. Dartmouth seems to have a long tradition of carefully considering the aesthetic qualities of its publications, even the mundane ones. You can spot an official Dartmouth publication from the 1890s through the 1990s by its green paper cover and black type.

Although the unique evening-glow aerial view on the cover of the latest ORCis pleasing, one might wish to see it retain the serious look the old one had for many decades. The ORC was the one no-nonsense publication you got from the College, and reading it was serious business.