Hanover
Although administrators did not provide a timeline or cost estimate for the construction, which still is in a “conceptual” phase, they said in a Sept. 8 news release that the plans could add as much as 450,000 square feet of building space to the area.
School leaders are considering adding at least five buildings to support new amenities for the Thayer School of Engineering, the Tuck School of Business and the computer science department, which currently is located across campus in Sudikoff Hall.
The “green to blue” concept, as college officials are calling the new pathway, would parallel West Wheelock Street and snake between Robinson Hall and McNutt Hall, past Dartmouth’s main dining building and through a wooded town-owned cemetery before heading through the west campus and down a hill to the river.
“The river is a hidden gem,” Lisa Hogarty, vice president of campus services, said in a college announcement. “This plan creates a route from the Green to the river and adds new community green space. The plan also works to make the west end of campus more pedestrian- and bike-friendly.”
College officials last week confirmed that Dartmouth would need permission from the town to build a pedestrian bridge over the cemetery, as the concept proposes. This spring, Dartmouth secured a zoning amendment that allows some construction closer to the burial ground.
Some of the west-end work could mean the demolition of the River Cluster, a group of aging residence halls, the release said. Some of those buildings date to the 1960s.
The college then would have to build new dorms, the release said, but plans for that project aren’t yet in progress.
College officials provided a conceptual drawing showing several new buildings outlined in blue, but said the planning process was too early to identify their future uses.
Nevertheless, administrators also have announced plans to expand the Thayer School into a third building, which would be located atop an existing parking lot to the southeast.
Earlier this year, Dartmouth ran into opposition from neighbors along West Wheelock Street when it proposed expanding the campus “institutional” district to build a replacement parking garage near the busy thoroughfare. The college eventually scaled back its plans.
“Many things about these new plans look attractive — especially the green to blue walkway,” nearby condo owner James Heffernan, who was among the residents to criticize the original parking plan, said in an email.
But, added Heffernan, a retired Dartmouth English professor, this month’s news release still mentions a possible “parking garage,” and he was uncertain how big it would be or where it would be located.
College officials this spring said the school’s intention was to add indoor parking to the new Thayer building rather than construct a free-standing garage, a point reiterated this week by Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence.
Darrell Hotchkiss, another resident who offered criticism for the initial garage plans, said he was concerned that a walkway near the cemetery could mar the beauty and sanctity of the site.
“It may be inappropriate to comment on ‘concepts’ incorporating ‘plans’ still undeveloped, and which may never be,” he said in an email on Wednesday. “One thing is certain, Dartmouth is intent on spending an infinite amount of money on brick-and-mortar dreams. I fail to see why the town should permit the aesthetic desecration of its cemetery in furtherance of those dreams.”
Although the west-end expansion, as laid out in the release, is mostly confined to the Dartmouth campus, the college is on somewhat of a building spree elsewhere in town.
Live-in faculty houses and temporary structures have popped up to the east and south to support Dartmouth’s new residential “house” system, and construction crews are working on a $50 million, multi-year renovation of the Hood Museum of Art.
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.