With the demolition of the old Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in September, the College is one step closer to completing the first phase of its northward expansion.
The first stage of the expansion plan, scheduled to finish in 2000, includes converting the old hospital into a parking lot, constructing a new psychology building and building the Berry Library extension of Baker Library.
By January, most of the rubble from the hospital demolition should be cleared. Then in spring, the sand and gravel lot will be landscaped and turned into "a combination of parking spaces, greenery and walkways," Director of Facilities Planning Gordie DeWitt said.
"It is a one-for-one swap," he said. "The new parking spaces will make up for the loss of spaces on the Elm-Maynard block."
Construction of the $23 million psychology building will start in the middle of 1996 and be completed by 1998, DeWitt said. The psychology building will be built on Maynard Street, next to Sherman House. The department is currently housed in Silsby, Bradley and Gerry Halls.
Although the College currently has not raised the money for the building, the Board of Trustees voted last year to pay for construction out of the College's endowment.
According to the College's campus expansion plans, the Berry addition to Baker is scheduled to be completed by the year 2000. But DeWitt said no final decision can be made about the Baker expansion because it is contingent on the College raising enough money to convert Webster Hall into a Special Collections library.
The rare books and manuscripts in Special Collections must be moved out of Baker before construction can start on the Berry addition.
"In order to work on the Berry-Baker expansion, we really need space to move around," DeWitt said.
In order for the Berry addition to be completed by the deadline, the renovation of Webster Hall needs to begin by the summer of 1996, DeWitt said.
However, after several years of fund-raising, the College only has about half of the $10 million needed to renovate Webster, according to Paul Sheff, director of major gifts. Sheff said it is difficult to predict whether the College will be able to raise the money by the summer. He said his office is "talking to potential donors."
The north campus expansion plan also includes the demolition of Bradley and Gerry Halls. Until the buildings are demolished, they will be uncomfortably close to the library. But the mathematics department must move out before demolition can start.
The College has plans to build a mathematics and computer science building next to Sudikoff Computer Laboratory. However, according to DeWitt, the completion of the building is another 10 years away.
The overall completion of the campus expansion plan will be quicker if the College can avoid building a new mathematics building, DeWitt said. Right now, alternatives are being considered, such as moving the department in a building that already stands, DeWitt said.
