As the College gears for the construction of Berry Library, the most important physical addition to the campus since the original Baker Library went up close to 70 years ago, the first major project in the "North Campus Expansion" plan -- Webster Hall renovations-- is proceeding without incident.
Director of Facilities Planning Gordon DeWitt said the renovations of Webster Hall are "going well" and are on track with the original schedule -- which calls for the project to be complete by the fall of 1998.
Webster Hall, formerly used as a medium-sized progamming space for dances, concerts and speeches, will become the Rauner Special Collections Library. The current Special Collections Room of Baker is too small to accomodate the multitide of College papers, manuscripts and other special archives.
The design for the new interior of Webster replaces the old open space on the first floor with several floors of climate-controlled stacks surrounded by study areas for students. The upper levels will also be converted to study areas.
The construction crews are at present digging an underground connection between Baker and Webster Hall, a space that will contain more stacks, DeWitt said.
Webster's exterior will remain the same, he added.
The College announced plans to convert the space in January of 1994. At the time, the Special Collections division of Baker was so overcrowded that it was "forced to store books on desks and under tables," according to an article in The Dartmouth.
The renovation was priced at $10 million. Between $3 million and $5 million in funding was secured from the Will to Excel Capital Campaign at the time.
Renovations were scheduled to begin as early as the summer of 1994, but lack of funds delayed the project for two years, until Bruce Rauner '78 of Chicago donated $5 million dollars.
The loss of programming space in Webster has aroused student protest on a number of occasions.
In April of 1995, the Student Assembly voted on a resolution to call for the College to either find another place for Special Collections or to build new programming space, such as an auditorium.
And last spring, Kathy Kim '00 and Ben Oren '00 used the preserving of Webster Hall as programming space as a platform in their unsuccessful bids for Student Assembly president and vice president, respectively.
At present, the College has not been able to identify a medium-sized programming space to serve as a replacement for Webster.
