The College recently finished one of its largest-ever construction projects in the multimillion-dollar Berry Library and the adjacent Carson Hall.
But blueprints for more construction have yet to be fully carried out, with much of the future developments slated for the north side of campus.
Older buildings like Bradley and Gerry -- known as the "shower towers" because of their tile facing -- will be torn down, clearing the way for a new landscaping effort north of Berry, according to Associate Director of Facilities Planning Jack Wilson.
Plans to begin construction this year on a new main dining hall north of Maynard Street were curtailed by budget cuts in the fall of 2002. Barring funding problems, the dining hall is projected to be a campus staple in ten years.
The Maynard Street dining hall is intended to appeal more to Dartmouth's graduate students, Wilson said.
Near the dining hall, Dartmouth will build new dorms extensively within the next ten years. The College plans for the new residence halls to add 300-400 beds in 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, the newest building in the East Wheelock cluster.
According to Wilson, McCulloch is the model campus planners used in thinking about future residential halls.
McCulloch and other recent additions to campus architecture, 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. Some students say that 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."
Residential halls that resemble fraternity and sorority houses are another option, but Wilson said that 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 square with the neoclassical design of the campus.
Wilson gave Rauner Library in Webster Hall as an example of these principles done right. "The interior is completely different than you would expect from the outside," he said.
Where Dartmouth has gotten buildings wrong, it is most often because no one thinks to design the building with larger context of the campus in mind, Wilson said.
Some modern buildings have succeeded, however. History has vindicated the pleasing Hopkins Center, though it was quite controversial at the time it was built.
Dartmouth also owns a large portion of the town of Hanover itself. One portion of these properties -- located across from Foodstop on Main Street and known to developers as the South Block -- will be completely redone in the next several years, making more modern commercial space and extending the "feel" of downtown another block.
The College has also been reexamining the environmental impact of its buildings. It will use enhanced technologies in the newer buildings that save money and energy on heating and water usage.
