The College will expand Wilder Hall by 22,000 square feet and renovate Fairchild and Steele Halls starting this summer if the Hanover planning board approves the building plans later this month.
The addition to Wilder, which would rise behind the current structure, would include two astronomy observation domes on the roof and a stairwell enclosed in a tower. There would also be one level of mechanical equipment such as heating and ventilation systems, as well as two floors of physics and astronomy offices and laboratories.
The $4.5 million expansion of Wilder, which would begin in June and end around January of 2000, would be the first of a four-year series of science building renovations, Assistant Director of Facilities Planning Jack Wilson said.
After the addition to Wilder Hall is complete, physics professors and faculty offices will be moved from Steele to Wilder, and the College will repair Steele's roof structure, upgrade its ventilation and electrical systems, and renovate its general chemistry laboratory, according to the plan.
"A large part of what is going to happen is a result of code compliance and safety concerns," Wilson said.
He also said the new facilities will provide professors with better teaching tools and will allow the College to compete with other institutions.
The creation of high-tech laboratories in Steele would fulfill the great demand for research facilities -- a demand which increases as the College hires younger faculty members, Director of Facilities Planning Gordon DeWitt said.
During the expansion of Wilder, there will be a loss of half of the parking spaces between Fairchild and Burke Laboratory as well as a disruption of traffic due to concrete and dump trucks transporting materials back and forth.
Last Tuesday night, the Hanover planning board accepted Dartmouth's building application as complete and scheduled a site visit for April 21. Further review of the plan will follow the site visit, so the College could receive approval that evening.
If the plan is accepted, Wilson said he hopes to complete most of the excavation and blasting in the summer, during which many construction projects will already be occurring.
Construction of the Moore psychology building and Berry Library will be continuing as well as the transformation of Webster Hall into Rauner Special Collections Library. The town will also still be reconstructing West Wheelock Street as part of the Ledyard Bridge Project.
Hanover Planning and Zoning Coordinator Susan Beliveau said there is no real concern in the town's planning department about the large number of construction projects simultaneously taking place at Dartmouth.
But DeWitt said he is somewhat concerned about the construction situation on campus, "since it is a lot to do at once" and there are general-campus safety and pedestrian-traffic concerns.
