Construction and renovation on campus the past two years have been a constant annoyance to students, but the Class of 1997 will see the rewards in its first year, and will not be as greatly inconvenienced in the future.
The project most exciting for student life is the new Collis Student Center, scheduled to open this spring. The renovated building will house a student union with lounges, a pub, pool tables, vending machines, video games and offices for student organizations. With the incorporation of neighboring College Hall, there is double the space for the Cafe, dance club, common area and everything else that once squeezed into the old Collis, closed since last winter. The area between Collis and Thayer dining hall will no longer be used for through traffic or parking. Also, the road in front of Massachusetts Row dormitories will be remodelled into a pedestrian area, scheduled for completion this fall.
The ugliest of the recent projects, a steam tunnel renovation that dug up the Green for about a year, is now over. And most troublesome in the future, the major transformation of Baker library and centerpiece of the College masterplan, will probably not disturb students until the Class of '97 has reached alumni status.
But this class will not always have a tranquil campus. According to Steve Mischissin, utilities engineer in the building and grounds department, there will be more renovations to the underground infrastructure which could disturb life above the surface.
Currently, underground electric work has fenced off the ground in front of the library. It is moving west towards the Tuck School of Business Administration and east towards the Shattuck Observatory, and should be finished by September 30. In the spring a new steam line will require construction from the Rockefeller Center to the Choates dormitories. Eventually the central steam loop circling the buildings facing the Green will be replaced, part by part.
Most prestigious colleges and universities are facing a backlog of deferred maintenance, but Dartmouth is planning a dramatic modernization of its physical facilities. The College hopes to raise $425 million in a five-year capital campaign now nearly halfway through. The campaign was planned in tandem with a 1990 report outlining the College's long-term institutional goals, which recommended curriculum reform, an increase in the faculty by 5 percent and tremendous physical improvement of the campus, with no significant change in the size of the student body.
This renovation and expansion was made possible by the Dartmouth Medical Center's move out of Hanover two years ago. The Center, including the hospital, the outpatient clinic and the Dartmouth Medical School, moved from its north campus site to a brand new $218 million facility in nearby Lebanon. The move freed up large amounts of land around Maynard street, and the College plans to develop a new quadrangle in the block north of Baker and south of Maynard.
The future renovation of Baker was made possible last fall when John Berry '44 donated $25 million for the new library, the largest gift in College history. The capital campaign has also paid for a state of the art chemistry building, Burke Hall, which opened last year and stands just east of the future north campus square.
According to Director of Facilities Planning Gordon DeWitt, four or five major projects will finish or start during the next four years. In addition to Collis, a new computer science laboratory is now underway. The Sudikoff Laboratory is located on the northeast corner of the north campus square and will open this winter. Beginning in June the College will work on the closed street behind Baker, preparing the ground for the library's expansion. The Dragon Secret Society will be moved to an area near the Choates dormitories. Sometime after June, Special Collections from Baker will be moved to a newly renovated Webster Hall at a cost of more than $10 million. A new psychology building is planned for the northwest corner of the north campus square. Construction could start in the next four years, depending on funding from the capital campaign.
While utility renovations progress behind Baker over the next few years, active planning for the new library will be completed. Though the College hopes to have Berry finished by the year 2000, actual construction is not planned until after 1997. Eventually, a new mathematics building will be built between Sudikoff and the psychology building, but this may be 10 years in the future.
Construction in the north campus block will be largely hidden from most of the campus. This work could pose problems to students when they travel to the Gilman Life Sciences Laboratory, Burke or Sudikoff, but the Green will for the most part remain peaceful.
