On October 12, artist Ross Ashton will project a work commissioned by Dartmouth onto the entrance facade of the Hop (The Dartmouth. Ashton seems to use heraldry a fair amount, and coats of arms or flags appear prominently in his projections on the Gibbs Building at King’s College, Cambridge (Flickr, Ashton’s blog), Buckingham Palace (Flickr), and Caerphilly Castle in Wales (ET Now).
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[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to projection notice replaced with link to The Dartmouth.]
I. The 2010 Amendment. The “official” online version of Dartmouth’s charter used to be an html version provided by the Government Documents office. Recently, the Trustees have made available a June 2010 revision (pdf) with helpful side- and footnotes. (Some indication of authorship for the notations would be nice, since most are many decades old.)
The reason for the revision is found in footnote 8 on page 9:
By vote taken June 11, 2010, the charter was amended to add the following provision required by the Internal Revenue Service’s regulations concerning tax-exempt organizations: “Upon the dissolution of the Corporation, its assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the federal government, or to a state or local government for a public purpose. Any such assets not disposed of shall be disposed of by the Superior Court of the county in which the principal office of the Corporation is then located, exclusively for such purposes or to such organization or organizations, as said Court shall determine, which are organized and operated exclusively for such purposes.”
II. The description of the 2007 amendment. The notes do not quote the 2007 amendment that expanded the board, and the description of that amendment remains a curiosity. The October 2007 version of the Charter explained the amendment this way:
By vote taken September 8, 2007, the charter was amended to increase the number of Trustees to twenty-six, provided that the number of Trustees to be elected upon nomination by the alumni shall be eight, and that the Governor ex-officio and the President during his or her term of service shall continue to be Trustees.
As pointed out here, that note suggested that the Charter itself (rather than the board’s resolutions or bylaws) had been amended to describe the system of nominations. If that is what happened, it would be notable as probably the first time that nominations (or for that matter alumni) were ever mentioned in the Charter. One would assume that the traditional practice up to this time was to amend the Charter to increase the number of Trustees and, at the same time, to amend the bylaws to increase the number of nominations.
The explanatory note has changed in the latest version of the Charter. On page 4 (the continuation of footnote 2), the 2010 Charter states:
By vote taken September 8, 2007, the charter was amended to increase the number of Trustees to twenty-six, provided that the number of Trustees to be elected by the Board upon nomination by the Board shall be sixteen, that the number of Trustees to be elected upon nomination by the alumni shall be eight, and that the Governor ex-officio and the President during his or her term of service shall continue to be Trustees.
(Emphasis added). The amendment has not changed, only the board’s description of it. Things would be clearer if the board put the text of the amendment itself into the footnotes. Or, if the speculation is correct that “alumni” is not in the Charter, the board could clarify matters by describing its actions with somewhat more precision.
A memorandum published in connection with the Academic Center/Williams bond (pdf) states on A-9 and A-10 that the North Campus Academic Center will replace Gilman and Dana, is scheduled to begin during July of 2013, and is expected to be substantially complete by March of 2016.
The building is planned to house the Departments of Sociology and Anthropology (the college was mum about this in an article in The Dartmouth, and the plan might still be in flux); the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science; the Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice; Dana Biomedical Library; and the administration of the Geisel School.
Elsewhere, it is noted that the Academic Center is a registered LEED project.
And what about the bridge to Kellogg — will it survive? It could be hidden behind the screen visible on the left side of the image published here recently.
I. Background. Dartmouth acquired most of the properties within two substantial blocks of downtown Hanover during the late 1990s. In the more distant block, called South Block, the Real Estate Office demolished most of the buildings and created a fairly intricate series of mixed-use replacements following a master plan by Truex Cullins. A below-grade parking deck fills the center of the block. The result is impressive: in the image below, the two commercial buildings north of the square white roof anchor the project, and the new buildings continue eastward along the street at the top of the image (South Street).
II. Phase Two. The projected second phase of the project will address the Sargent Block, along Lebanon Street. Located diagonally opposite South Block, this block is much closer to the center of campus. It includes the Lodge, an old motel converted to a dormitory decades ago.
This part of the project has been slow to get off the ground. C.J. Hughes reported in a 2010 Alumni Magazine article on the Lodge that the Sargent Block redevelopment has been put off until at least 2015. Dartmouth has built only one building in the block, 4 Currier Place, which architects Truex Cullins describe as “the first phase of the master plan for the Sargent Block redevelopment.” An old planning document (pdf) suggests that the redevelopment would replace 22 dwelling units on the site (rental units, not dormitory beds) and add an additional 113 units. Dartmouth has not released any information about a potential master plan for the block.
III. The Master Plan. A campus tour map posted on the Admissions website as late as August of 2010 included the then-current master plan for the Sargent Block:
Here is the master plan layered atop the existing conditions:
The master plan has probably changed since it was (somewhat inadvertently) published, but at the time, it seems to have been accurate. The map shows a number of interesting moves by Dartmouth.
The college is buying into the proposal in the town’s 2000 master plan that this block be divided by a new east-west street. In addition, the existing but somewhat vestigial Sargent Place is continued through the block. Both of these changes will improve circulation and make the closing of the north end of Sanborn Road an easier proposition.
The map indicates:
The plan appears to retain the C&A Pizza building. The old frame house and its commercial addition add a lot of character to the street; the website says that C&A has been going since 1976, and that could be the date of the addition.
East of Sargent Place, the Lodge is to be demolished, of course. This will move the effective southern boundary of the campus to the other side of Lebanon Street and make Topliff the school’s southernmost dormitory — a big step. Also to be removed, at least according to the master plan, are the Victorian frame house of the Jewel of India and the solid brick house containing Kleen.
The Jewel of India really must be removed from its crucial corner site. It also really should be preserved, and its frame construction would make it relatively easy to relocate to a site in the southern part of the block. The appealing Kleen building is so substantial that it would seem a waste not to incorporate it into the redevelopment. But it is not a rarity in Hanover, so it might be hard to argue for.
Around the corner onto Sanborn Road, the plan shows the removal of two frame houses. Below the new cross-street, the two existing houses are preserved, one with an addition to bring it out to the corner — nice. This southeastern corner of the block is depicted as preserving the residential character of the immediate area, however small that area is.
IV. Conclusion.The plan only hints at the buildings that might someday form a new gateway to Dartmouth. But it is a positive sign.
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[Update 08.12.2012:
Something about the plan rang a bell: This presentation (pdf), linked here during 2008, has a more detailed version of the plan and even a few perspective renderings. The first rendering shows the intersection of Lebanon and Sargent Place looking south. That’s the Serry’s Building on the right and the Lodge replacement on the left. Compare this view:
Walking down Sargent Place to the new corner and turning left would reveal the second view included in the presentation. The third image is hard to place but might be a view to the south along Sanborn Road or west along South Street.
What about the plan as a whole? It seems quite appealing. It is hard to believe that a ratty parking lot could be turned into this neighborhood. Replacing a dormitory (the Lodge) with rental housing and commercial buildings amounts to an unusual retreat for the college, a constriction of the borders of the campus. At the same time, the plan is not meant to rule the outcome: the flat roofs and streaky-bacon brickwork will not emerge precisely as they are depicted. For an example, compare the semi-Modernist reality of 4 Currier with the gabled prediction of the early views.]
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[Update 05.03.2014: Broken link to 4 Currier page replaced.]
[Update 11.17.2012: Broken link to old planning document fixed.]
Lee Rosenbaum at CultureGrrl has a post on the selection of Williams and Tsien as architects for the expansion. She quotes Hood Director Michael Taylor:
What really drew me to their work was their additions to the Phoenix Art Museum, which I think are superb, and the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center. Seeing the latter blew me away, since I saw how they could transform the Hood Museum’s entrance, while the former gave me a sense of what our new galleries could look like.
Rosenbaum also filmed an interview with Taylor in front of Wilson Hall, and she presents the video in the post. A few interesting things he mentions: the building is likely to include a “light box” and the new entrance will contain lots of glass and lights and possibly a big “Hood Museum of Art” [sign]. Wilson also will include a visitor services area and possibly a café.
Taylor also says that the archway where the Hood and Wilson connect will be replaced with the museum learning center. He probably means the arched door opening in the hyphen, not the iconic trabeated concrete gateway of the Hood itself.
Images of past work by the firm show at least a few formal similarities with the Hood, including the use of glazed brick and concrete and the interest in long flat spans, sometimes uncomfortably long in the case of Williams and Tsien. The firm’s project seems unlikely to refer to Wilson’s arches.
Past projects that seem most likely to be echoed in the Hood expansion are visible in images from the firm’s site: Skirkanich Hall at UPenn (another, an exterior); the Phoenix Art Museum (another); the Mattin Student Center at Johns Hopkins; the American Folk Art Museum; and of course the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center (with its exterior entry).
The Hood will close about a year from now and reopen during the Spring of 2015.
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[Update 05.12.2013: Nine links to Flash content at TWBTA site removed.]
[Update 07.07.2012: Spelling correction and minor wording change made.]
During 2010, the Hopkins Center put on a symposium on the Arts Center of the 21st Century. Its goal was to generate ideas for the renovation and expansion of the Hop coinciding with the Center’s 50th anniversary in 2012. (The materials include a pdf excerpt from the Campus Guide discussing the Hop.)
Hop Director Jeff James spoke about the challenges and opportunities of the Hop at 50 (video). His talk and others, drawing from the 2001 Rogers Marvel master plan (pdf), suggested some of the moves that the project might eventually make:
Attendees then broke into five groups for charrettes. Several people expressed their dissatisfaction with the fireplace in the Top of the Hop. It is an odd item (see Dartmouth’s Flickr photo), but it seems perfect for that space: anything less extravagant would dilute the experience.
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[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to symposium replaced; broken links to symposium materials and pdf removed.]
Bing’s current aerial view of the Upper Valley is much newer than Google’s — only a couple of months old — and has much better detail.
In various parts of this view, the Inn addition is beginning and the Softball Park is visible. Parker Apartments at 2 North Park are gone. The VAC is roofed and the LSC’s pathways are finished, looking like the runways of an airport.
There’s a forlorn little roundabout alongside the desolate grounds of Rivercrest. Rivercrest looks like a cemetery.
Alumna Emily Singer Yen has posted an impressive portfolio that includes a set of 2010 designs for what appears to be a large addition to the Ledyard Canoe Club.
This is not simply a student project: the designer “[c]ollaborated and interned with the selected architect to prepare schematic designs for preliminary State and Town permitting meetings[.]” Back in 2010 Ledyard was raising money for the addition, and in February of 2011 the “rebuild” was said to be going ahead.
The publicity around the Inn expansion constantly emphasizes the building’s “historic” nature. The label seems to come from the Inn’s inclusion in 2011 in the Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
How does a hotel get into the program?
To be nominated and selected for membership into this prestigious program, a hotel must be at least 50 years old, listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places or recognized as having historic significance.
The nomination form states that “Properties must be a minimum age of 75 years” under the blank for “Year originally built.”
The main block of the Inn will not be 50 years old until 2016. The Inn is not listed on the National Register, and one doubts that any historian has determined the building to be eligible for listing. (If the dates on the main block and the subsidiary wing were swapped, that would be another story.) Nor does anyone, including the National Trust, appear to have recognized the Inn as having historic significance. The phrase “historic significance” refers to the fact that the building was “home to, or on the grounds of, a former home of famous persons or [a] significant location for an event in history.” This HHA definition is in line with one of the criteria for National Register eligibility.
What, then, did the Inn tell the National Trust in its application? Some clues might lie in the text of the HHA page provided for the Inn:
As corrected, this sentence is adequate as an anecdote, although it makes one wonder who would care about something occurring “two years later” than an unspecified date.
To be a bit more accurate, the page might say that the inn established by Brewster was usually called Brewster’s Tavern. Around 1813, Brewster’s son replaced the building with a completely different building called the Dartmouth Hotel. That building burned in 1887 and was replaced in 1889 with a completely different building called the Wheelock Hotel. That building was demolished in the 1960s and is no longer standing:
To continue:
This sentence could be worded better, but it is correct. What is not clear is why anyone would care about those renovations, since the renovated building no longer exists.
And that east wing is the oldest part of the Inn. The 1939 information is interesting but irrelevant.
Another, more accurate way to put it would be to say that “in 1968, the historic 1889 Hanover Inn was completely demolished, leaving only the 1924 east wing.” The main block of the Inn today, the building standing on the corner, is not “a west wing” attached to something greater than itself: it is the Inn.
These statements probably have some basis in fact. First, if the school was yet not co-ed, why were women living in a dormitory? Because they were Carnival visitors, in town for a few days each year. Second, if they were college-aged, why bother describing them (twice) as “single”? It cannot be meant to distinguish them from the veterans’ wives living in married students’ housing after WWII, since those women were not segregated by gender. Third, the statement about the chaperones is interesting, if true. But considering that Carnival dates at the Inn were not staying in a temporarily-cleared dormitory, and thus were paying for their rooms, the Inn must have found it cost-effective to station a few women in the halls to mind the furnishings.
That might be true, if the various hotels dating back to Brewster are considered as a single business. One might prefer Tuttle Farm, which has been operating since 1632 and apparently has been owned by just one family.
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[Update 07.14.2012: The Inn is now accurately emphasizing the fact that a hostel has existed on the site since 1780. See for example Dartmouth Now.]
Dartmouth recently announced that it has “initiated a renovation and expansion project for the Hopkins Center and will be selecting an architect in the coming year.” Because the Hop is so large, loved, and important, this is sure to be an interesting project.
On the occasion of the Hopkins Center’s 50th anniversary, the alumni magazine has published a photo essay on the Hop of today and collected reminiscences.
Reading Jonah Lehrer’s New Yorker article mentioning the Pixar building and how Steve Jobs concentrated the restrooms in one place as a way of forcing interaction among employees reminds one of the Hinman Boxes and their placement in the Hopkins Center with the specific intention of exposing students to the arts.1Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designed the 2002 Pixar headquarters, the most important Apple Stores over the years, and Dartmouth’s Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center.
The Black family’s gift for the Visual Arts Center includes the funding of an artwork by Ellsworth Kelly that will be attached to the east facade of Spaulding Auditorium this year (The Dartmouth). See this Street View for the likely site.
The publicity around the Hood expansion and the arts center refers to “Dartmouth’s new Arts District.” It seems that neither “Hopland” nor “SoWhee” has taken hold.
There is the challenge of adding to a notable building by a big-name architect, Wallace Harrison. The various firms doing careful insertions in and around the Harrison-planned Lincoln Center, including Tod Williams Billie Tsien, would be worth considering (Lincoln Center page, Times Topics).
Two recent master plans have proposed that the college graft a variety of additions onto the sides of the Hop:
It will be interesting to see where the new additions will go and how they will look. Will the Hop’s studio range really be demolished and replaced, as the Rogers Marvel plan proposes? Will the blank wall on Lebanon Street really get a row of shops, as the Brook McIlroy plan proposes? Will a northern addition expand the Hop proper toward the Green, alongside the original and iconic Moore Theatre? Stay tuned.
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[Update 07.07.2012: Link to DAM article added.]
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| ↑1 | Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designed the 2002 Pixar headquarters, the most important Apple Stores over the years, and Dartmouth’s Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center. |
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The Valley News reports that the project’s first phase will finish by June, “even as the price of the project has skyrocketed and town officials say the college may have underestimated the scope of the work.” Google’s Street View sort of shows where the addition is going. The Town’s Flickr stream has a mid-1960s photo that shows a clean Scout driving in the foreground and the original 1880s Inn being demolished in the background. The Inn’s 1923 wing, also visible, still stands.
Images of selective demolition are on line from contractor Dectam, including photos of some guest rooms without walls, only bathtubs; a team of workers going after the exterior concrete pavers; and the demolition of the lobby plaza area wall.
Dana Lowe, a subcontractor on the project, died on March 13th after a construction accident involving a crane and a scissor-lift (The Dartmouth).
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[Update 03.31.2013: Broken link to Dectam replaced.]
The website for the current strategic planning process uses the 2019 Quartomillenium as an endpoint, with its motto “Imagine the Next 250.”
The Bicentennial year of 1969-1970 gives an example of what the Quartomillenium could be. There were three big events according to Charles Widmeyer in John Sloan Dickey: A Chronicle of His Presidency of Dartmouth College (1991), 250, 271. Those events were:
The notable commemorative objects produced for the Bicentennial included:
The Quartomillenium could include these events:
Inside Higher Ed has a review of Bryant Tolles’s new book, Academic Architecture in New England. The book, based on Tolles’s 1970 dissertation, provides the best coverage available anywhere of Dartmouth’s original buildings.
A new book about the work of alumni firm Rogers Marvel is available.
Dartbeat has a map of warmcuts around campus. What is a warmcut? It’s a shortcut that won’t save you time but will let you stay indoors as much as possible.
The college publicity office has an article on the 50th anniversary of the Hanover Conservancy, formerly the Hanover Conservation Council. The group manages the Mink Brook Nature Preserve and other areas.
The Four Aces Diner in West Lebanon has reopened (Valley News).
Eli Burak, whose work has been linked here, is the new official college photographer following the retirement of Joseph Mehling (The Dartmouth, Facebook video (via Dartmouth Now)).
The story of the Chicken Farmer I Still Love You graffito, in the Valley News.
Dartmouth’s investment in sustainability (The Dartmouth) is likely to create problems when it encounters the college’s interest in preserving the historic windows still found in many campus buildings.
A solar-powered blue emergency phone (Dartmouth Planning).
Historic photos of Main Street businesses. Note the Dartmouth Bank Building before the arches were added to the front and after the arches were added (but before the building was raised by one level). More of this building and others north of Lebanon Street appear in a slide show from the Hanover Bicentennial parade on July 4, 1961 (via the Planning blog). Also in the slide show is an interesting shot of the buildings that preceded the Nugget Arcade.
Is the Watershed Studio’s listing of a Ledyard Canoe Club project a reference to a replacement building, a renovation, or something else?
The Co-op Food Store at the roundabout on Lyme Road is the subject of some detailed information provided by ORW.
In Norwich, Vermont’s ex-village of Lewiston (see the Rauner post) is a street that was recently named Ledyard Lane (Google Maps). The street leads to the depot, which is still standing, and one presumes it was previously called Depot Street. How strange to see John Ledyard’s name migrating via the bridge across the river to a site he had nothing to do with.
An interesting granite monument is set in the ground at the northwest corner of Lebanon and Summer Streets (Google Street View). The “H” must stand for Hanover, but why here? Is it a former town line? Doubtful. Perhaps a former corner of a town-owned parcel.
The Rauner Library Blog has a post on the development of the Synclavier and the origins of the Bregman Electronic Music Studio.
The latest college map (pdf), released in August of 2010, is the first to show the LSC, ’53 Commons, the VAC, 4 Currier, and other novelties. The map also strangely misnames more than a dozen Greek houses in an apparent attempt to Romanize or transliterate the Greek characters of their names (via Jonathan). Visually, the map might be improved if the ground were shaded and the symbols indicating accessible entrances and restrooms were made less obtrusive. And one might hope that the mustard yellow of the buildings could be replaced with gray, brown, or green.
Dartmouth has been digging up the small lab animals that were buried in mass graves at the Rennie Farm during the 1960s and 1970s (Valley News).
Dartmouth Now writes about the last male descendant of Eleazar Wheelock.
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[Update 11.17.2012: Broken links Rogers Marvel and warm cuts fixed.]
I. Aerial films
Dartmouth Now has posted a video of a campus flyover taken from a helicopter. While most aerial photos look from south to north, this video skirts the northern and eastern edges of the campus. Things look different from this new perspective:
See also the helmet cam video of a parachutist landing at Memorial Field to start the Columbia game on October 22 (via the Big Green Alert blog).
II. Street View: Paths and Passages
Google has added the results of a sortie by one of its human-powered tricycles to its visual representation of Dartmouth’s campus. At least one trike visited about a year ago. Here is the view from the center of the Green.
The tricyclist took a curious detour to the rear of the NAD House and traversed the bridge to McCulloch Hall. He managed to ride under the Bildner Hall portico, onto the running track at Memorial Field, through the Hood Museum gateways, and along Mass Row.
Who knew that this little village lane meandered around the back side of College Park?
The rider’s reflection appears in the windows of the Berry Sports Center and the MacLean ESC. When he stands up to pedal up the hill north of the McLaughlin Cluster, you can see his helmet, and the camera has a brush with some tree branches along Maynard Street.
[02.25.2012 update: See also the articles by Susan J. Boutwell, “Dartmouth Among First Schools Showcased in Google Maps Feature,” Dartmouth Now (January 11, 2012) and in The Graduate Forum (January 17, 2012).]
I. The Dartmouth Company
Curiously, there is a Boston-based real estate company called The Dartmouth Company. It makes good use of serifs and a dark green color on its website and seems to operate in New Hampshire. See also the more obvious reference to the college at the Dartmouth Education Foundation.
II. The Arms of Dartmouth’s Schools
The Dartmouth College website seems to be doing something new when it describes the institution as a collection of five apparently equal schools:
The harmonization and use of the schools’ shields is commendable.
But this arrangement seems to contradict the rule that Dartmouth is the college. The “Associated Schools” — Tuck, Thayer, Medical, and lately the graduate programs — are associated with the college but are not coequals beneath a central university administration. Because “Dartmouth” is the undergraduate college, there is no need to put the letters “CA&S” before one’s class year, for example.
Tom Owen writes in The Dartmouth today:
In the discussion following Kim’s address, Provost Carol Folt said there is a “complicated set of reasons” for the gap between Dartmouth’s national and international rankings. Two of the major contributing factors are Dartmouth’s lack of a “university” title and Dartmouth’s focus on undergraduates, both of which have hurt Dartmouth’s international reputation.
[…]
Although large-scale changes may be necessary in the next decade, alumni must see new developments as part of an institutional history of adaptation rather than as a threat to tradition, Kim said.
The school’s Quartomillennium celebration in 2019 would be a good time to launch something new.
[01.25.2012 update: Education Foundation link added.]
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[Update 05.03.2014: Broken link to trough article replaced.]
[Update 05.12.2013: Broken link to Dragon photos removed.]
[Update 01.13.2013: Broken link to new residential colleges replaced, broken link to site map removed.]
Thanks to DADA for including the book in the inaugural exhibition. Thanks for citations by Bryant Tolles, in Architecture & Academe: College Buildings in New England before 1860 (UPNE, 2011), and the Rauner Library Blog, in a post on Dartmouth Hall.
Thanks also to T. Barton Thurber for the citation to the Rich thesis in European art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art (UPNE, 2008).
The catalog from the 2011 DADA Exhibition is now available (pdf) and provides some fascinating information about alumni in design.
For example, Domus, the Hanover firm that worked on the new Sigma Phi Epsilon house, includes Marty Davis ’69, Bruce R. Williamson ’74, and Bill Keegan ’75.
Canaan architectural blacksmith Dimitri Gerakaris ’69 (art-metal.com) created the copper pediment atop the Rockefeller Center porte-cochere, the Rugby Clubhouse interior bas-relief, and the railing outside Baker’s 1902 Room.
The poster was designed by Emily Yen ’10 of Hanover and Anchorage.
Thanks to author Sue Reed and to DADA for permission to post the catalog.
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[Update 11.17.2012: Broken link to catalog fixed.]
[Update 11.04.2012: Domus reference corrected: the firm worked on the Sigma Phi Epsilon house, but I believe a Vermont architect designed it.]
