Campus Master Planner Lo-Yi Chan '54 presented updated plans for a wave of possible future campus construction yesterday.
Major changes Chan suggested that would take place in the next five years included building a new undergraduate residential building and dining hall in the northern area of the campus, and connecting Thayer Dining Hall, Robinson Hall and the Collis Center to create a "true" center of student life.
Chan also said more recreational facilities, including a fifty-meter swimming pool, would be built on the land currently occupied by Rolfe Field. He did not know where the baseball diamond would be relocated.
He said a shortage of undergraduate housing was a concern, and that 500 to 600 new beds would be added over the next five years to meet this problem.
The bulk of the proposed housing would be located in the northern part of campus, but Chan also said a smaller dormitory may be built on Tuck Mall. Space for the new building would be created by making changes to Tuck Drive.
A new mathematics building will be built on the site where the Kiewit and Bradley/Gerry buildings presently stand.
The trustees have approved funding for a proposed second dorm for graduate students at Tuck School of Engineering.
Additional plans include expanding the Hood Museum and visual arts department.
As he discussed the tentative ten-year plan, Chan stressed the majority of changes would take place away from the center of campus, and said there was a general "determination to preserve the core of the campus."
The north would change most drastically as the former hospital land is developed.
He also said that if the College purchases Hanover High School, additional space may be available in the future for athletic or other facilities.
Provost Susan Prager called the plan a "work in progress," and said it had been "stimulated in a significant part by discussions ... rising out of our identification of a strong need for housing and residential space on campus."
Associate Provost Margaret Dyer Chamberlain said the Student Life Initiative had influenced plans to bring more students back onto campus and into better residential facilities.
The original master plan was presented in the fall of 1998, before the Student Life Initiative was announced.
Similar presentations and discussions of the plan will be held over the next two terms, Chamberlain said, adding that the updated plan should be completed by the summer or fall of 2001.
She said the key ideas behind the plan were "preservation and connection."
Current studies that will affect the updated master plan include a landscape master plan, a lighting master plan, a building history study, a parking/traffic/circulation study and a classroom utilization study.
Chan said the plan aimed to balance the pressures put on the land by the trustees, the faculty and the local school district.
