In an effort to enhance community interaction among Dartmouth faculty and staff and provide greater commuter convenience for professors, the College is in the last year of plans to expand faculty housing in Hanover by 45 units, or 17 percent of what it already offers.
Demand for real estate throughout Hanover has been on the rise in recent years, causing prices to skyrocket. Accordingly, Dartmouth faculty and staff have been forced to find housing elsewhere.
According to Director of Real Estate Paul Olsen, the College reinvigorated its plans to build faculty housing following a sharp increase in requests for such units. Between 1995 and 1999, demand rose by 125 percent, he said.
"The consequence," Olsen said, "is that we haven't been able to place nearly as many people as we'd like to."
As of 1998, only 20 percent of faculty lived within Hanover.
One consequence of this pattern has been that few faculty members are able to interact with students and colleagues on a regular, convenient basis, a trend which the new housing projects hope to ameliorate.
Another much-noted consequence, which is exacerbated in the tumultuous winter months, has been inconvenience for staff and employees in their daily commutes.
Pending final approval from the Hanover Zoning Board, the College is scheduled to complete 32 single-family homes on the Grasse Road area and 22 rental units at the site, located at the intersection of Park and Wheelock Streets.
The Grasse Road project already includes 32 privately owned homes on the 160 acre plot located two miles from the campus, while the Park-Wheelock site will become the first rental property available to Dartmouth faculty and administrators.
Both projects, which aim to expand the tight Hanover real estate market to accommodate College personnel, are due to be completed by the summer of 2001.
Olsen added, "all that is dependent on our being able to find a contractor" for the Park-Wheelock project, which has already received final approval from the town.
Both projects have faced their own moments of controversy.
In the early 1980s, when the Park-Wheelock project was first proposed, Hanover resisted the College's plans to construct more than 80 faculty housing units at the site. Similarly, the expansion of Grasse Road, which requires construction on wetlands, faced initial opposition for environmental reasons.
Now, however, the College is expecting town approval.
"We don't think there will be any surprises," said Olsen.
