The College is planning to build 23 houses at the Grasse Road development in Hanover in an effort to provide more housing for Dartmouth faculty and administrators.
Currently, the project consists of 32 homes that offer administrators and faculty the opportunity to live near the campus.
The College has a contract with a local building company which offers four different models of prefabricated, custom-designed homes designed by a Boston architect.
These include two- to three-bedroom single-family detached houses on half-acre lots of land. The project also offers several interior-decoration options, College Real Estate Officer Woody Simonds said.
The College real-estate office oversees the construction, which usually takes six months, and the new residents take ownership upon completion of the house, Simonds explained.
"We continue to have a strong demand, which is the best sign of success," he said. "There's a great neighborhood feeling."
The majority of the people who take advantage of the Grasse Road program are professors, Simonds said, but there is also a good mix of administrators. He added that the homes had a large appeal for small families as well as for single people.
Richard Wright, a Geography Professor, who has lived on Morrison Road for 18 months, said he likes living there. "The houses are cleverly designed, they're efficient and they're reasonably close to campus."
James Matthews, chief programmer for computing services, has lived on MacDonald Drive for five years described Grasse Point as a family neighborhood consisting mainly of Dartmouth faculty and staff.
"I think it's a great neighborhood, my family and I are thrilled to live there," he said.
In addition, he said the residents are "interesting," and the community enjoys "much more international diversity than the average New Hampshire community."
The College has first priority to repurchase the homes and keep them open for resale should a resident decide to move. If it elects not to repurchase the house, the public has a chance to buy it.
Simonds said the College has chosen to exercise this right in the first four cases in order to keep the supply of houses within the Dartmouth community.
Because of this resale policy, which makes more faculty housing available when a resident leaves, the rate at which new houses are being built has decreased. Currently, only two or three houses are built each year.
Apart from regular faculty housing, the College also offers rental housing which is available for faculty and staff. These function as provisional housing for new Dartmouth employees who wish to live close to campus.
Simonds said the real estate office has not received any major complaints about the program.
"It doesn't work for everyone," he adds, "but it is a great option that the College provides."
