The Dartmouth students of 2013 will likely live on a campus that is more comfortable, functional and green than the campus of today. But the path to a better campus is not guaranteed, and history has demonstrated that the College has the potential for missteps along the way.
The College's vision for the future of the campus revolves around new developments on its north side.
Plans to begin construction this year on a new main dining hall north of Maynard St. were cut short by budget cuts in the fall of 2002. Pending funding, they will be well integrated into campus ten years from now.
Meanwhile, older, uglier buildings like Bradley and Gerry will be torn down, clearing the way for a new landscaping effort north of Berry, according to Associate Director of Facilities Planning Jack Wilson.
The College is also planning social space inside the dining halls north of campus and new residence halls nearby. "It's been a goal of ours to try to integrate student activities and dining in a building," Wilson said. "Collis is a good example."
The Maynard St. dining hall will also have more of an appeal to Dartmouth's graduate students, he said.
In the next ten years, Dartmouth will build the residence halls that will define the experiences of generations of students to come. The College is planning on building residential halls with 300-400 beds over the next few years and 700-1000 beds total within the next ten years.
If you want to see the future of residence halls at Dartmouth, check out McCulloch in the East Wheelock cluster. Wilson said it was the model campus planners were using to think about residential halls in the future.
McCulloch and other recent buildings by the College, notably Berry Library, have been met with decidedly mixed responses.
Students like living in McCulloch and seem to have a high sense of community, but there are certainly misses along with the hits -- the common spaces sometimes feel like huge hallways.
Berry is more controversial. It lacks the color and texture of Baker and some of the smaller libraries, and parts of it come off as a converted modern American airport.
Nevertheless, Wilson insisted that students found Berry a better environment to study in than Baker, based on an informal survey of around 200 students conducted by students for one of his architecture classes.
"I think over time things will happen in Berry that introduce color and life," he said. "The jury's still out."
There is a strong model at the College for residential halls that Dartmouth students consistently like Greek houses. But Wilson said the houses were not cost-effective for the high number of beds the College hopes to add.
Architecturally, the College is looking to integrate modern interior spaces with exterior designs that fit in to the overall design of the campus.
Wilson gave RaunerLibrary in Webster Hall as an example of these principles done right, explaining "The interior is completely different than you would expect from the outside."
Where Dart-mouth has gotten buildings wrong, it is most often because no one thinks to design the building in larger context of the campus, Wilson said. Some modern buildings have succeeded, though -- history has proven that the Hopkins Center, quite controversial at the time it was built, has been a very successful space.
The College has also been reexamining the environmental impact of its buildings. It will use technology in its newer buildings that save money and energy on heating and water usage while giving more control to residenents.
