THE THAYER SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

The Thayer School of Civil Engineering removed from the Thayer Building on Park Street to its new domicile in Bissell Hall during the Christmas holidays. The old Bissell Hall has been entirely remodeled within, so that it is practically a new building. Being rectangular both in plan and elevation it was adapted to making any arrangement of floors and rooms to fulfill all the requirements of the Thayer School. The interior framing is of steel throughout; the floors are of reinforced concrete with wearing surface of maple flooring; partitions of studs, plaster board and plaster, so that the construction is practically fireproof up to the roof. The old trusses and the slate roof remain as before, but a skylight twenty feet square has been put in,) which gives ample, illumination to two large drawing rooms on the upper floor. The exterior aspect of the building is too well known to Dartmouth men to need any description or comment, but it is proper to state that the building as constructed forty-seven years ago was so thoroughly well built on a notably strong and ample foundation that it is, today, one of the best brick buildings in town; and its Romanesque architecture is quite appropriate for an engineering school.

The new accommodations include the following

On the first floor the Director's office and study; an instrument room for keeping instruments and appliances of every sort for the field work of surveying; a general classroom for recitation purposes; a coatroom and lavatory for students, and an instructor's lavatory; a large and well equipped electrical laboratory, and office and study for Professor Austin in charge of the courses in electrotechnics.

In the basement on the east side is the hydraulic laboratory with weir tanks sixty-five feet long and a four-inch main with outlets and piping so as to utilize for all required purposes such volume of water as can be delivered from openings four inches in diameter and less, under a head of 160 feet; a space for cement-testing laboratories in south end; a general workshop equipped with lathe, bench, etc., with the necessary power furnished by a small electric motor; a testing room for the testing of all materials of construction by tension, compression, and cross bending; and a dynamo room immediately below, and auxiliary to the electrical laboratory. The latter will be equipped by a suitable hydraulic motor so as to be able to control the speed of operation of various machines. Finally, the closets and lavatory for the students.

On the second floor a large and commodious library at the north end; a large room for the exclusive use of the senior or graduate class, and also used for assemblies when the whole school is to be brought together; a room devoted to the display of specimens, models, and materials in various forms for illustrating the instruction, and contiguous to the large classroom; and a room appropriated to portraits, photographs of works, specimens, and other objects contributed by alumni, and therefore exhibiting by these means the work done by the various alumni of the thirty-eight classes graduated since the school was founded. On this floor also is Professor Holden's office, and another room for collections of materials.

On the third floor, besides the two large drawing rooms, one for each class, is a blue-print room; two dark rooms for developing and finishing photographs; an instructor's room; quarters for the librarians or those in immediate custody of the building; and a large room for collections relating to metalurgy, mining, tunneling, etc.

As has been stated, the floor space of the new quarters is rather more than two and one-half times greater than that afforded in the Thayer Building just vacated, and, as it is the policy of the administration of the Thayer School to restrict the size of classes, so far as can properly be done, these accommodations should be ample for forty years to come. This is on the assumption that membership in either class will usually not exceed twenty-five, and a total attendance in the two classes will not exceed forty-five or fifty.

The interior is very attractively finnished in oak in the color known as golden oak; the walls are tinted light yellow or dark cream color, so that the whole interior makes a very pleasing impression throughout the building. The basement is amply lighted by eighteen windows, and the walls and brick partitions tinted with a pleasing light yellow tint, while the concrete beams and panels overhead are white. The exterior trimmings and the porch with its columns are of a dark cream color, but very little different from that within, and the whole appearance of the building is much improved.

The accommodations thus provided will permit such increase of equipment and other facilities as may be needed from time to time to meet present and future demands of engineering education. The -policy hitherto maintained by the overseers and faculty of the Thayer School will, not be modified in any essential respect. This policy is directed on the principle that a course of civil engineering study may be made sufficiently inclusive of all fundamental principles and subjects, without diverging very far into special lines, so that graduates may be fitted for a very considerable range of practice in the emergencies which will confront them in the earlier years of their career, until they have found the particular line of practice best adapted to their abilities and opportunities.

Mr, Allen Hazen, consulting engineer of New York city, has recently sent to the Director a check for $500, to be used in some form of equipment which will serve as a memorial to his brother, Richard Hazen, who graduated from the school in 1909, and who died very suddenly last summer. His work since graduation had given promise of a very successful career. This generous donation will be devoted to the equipment of the hydraulic laboratory in such wise that it will be known, in its constant use, as a memorial to Richard Hazen, and will thus have a perpetual value in the work of the school year by year. This makes a helpful addition to the equipment of the laboratory, which will be further developed from time to time as resources will permit.

Professor Robert Fletcher, Director of the Thayer School