The New Tuck School Plant

A s studies for the future development of the College plant have evolved during the past decade, that area best known as the Hitchcock Property has given widest scope for conjecture and speculative planning. All but the most sterile of imaginations have been impelled to the drawing of mental sketches full of fascinating possibilities for the functional and physical growth of the College.

The inspiration and beneficence that brought about the building of Tuck Drive through this land may have been somewhat misdirected, insofar as that matchless roadway was intended to fill the need for a worthy approach from a railway station now long since deprived of its old-time hold on the comings and goings of Hanover traffic. But nature and artistry have contrived to give this approach a note of charm that is permissive of no let-down in plans for capitalizing the resources of the tract through which the Drive winds its way toward the river.

So it has come about that the fringes of the area have yielded to the hands of designer and builder. First came the group of college-built cottages on the narrow ridge called Webster Terrace; their simple white shapes screened and softened by native trees and well-placed shrubbery. Then followed the charming brick houses of the fraternity row on the Webster Avenue side and the stately home, with its perfection of setting, for the President of the College.

The tower of Baker Library was so placed that a new axis for campus growth westward through the Hitchcock Property was defined. The eastern end of Tuck Drive was re-aligned to center on the magnificent mall that now opens a broad reach of unbroken outlook toward the river and the hills of Norwich. Framed on one side by Crosby House and on the other by the new hall of the natural sciences, the border lines of the Mall are carried along, without suggestion of monotony, by Sage Hall on the north, by Hitchcock Hall and the newer Gile-Streeter-Lord dormitory group on the south. Then comes a sweep of greensward, outlined for a way by the ancient pines of the old burying ground and by the curving swing of Tuck Drive.

From here on toward the river lies a sizeable area that broadens out from the westerly end of the Mall. Geographically speaking, this tract is bounded on the east by the cemetery, on the north and west by Tuck Drive, and on the south by the gash that carries West Wheelock Street toward Ledyard Bridge.

LOCATION WELL PLANNED

It is this piece of one-time pasturage that a resourceful architect, (aided and abetted by a restless President and an irrepressible lot of Trustees) has dreamed over and played with for more than ten years. Seemingly, none of the more obvious needs of the College for plant expansion has pressed its claim for priority of location here. By common consent, the place has been earmarked as a reserve for giving future effect to some brilliant inspiration, still unborn, to be put forth by some genius, inarticulate as yet, who shall point the way to the building of the greater college that is to be.

There have been ideas and suggestions aplenty. A senior quadrangle, a housing group for honors students, centers for allied departments of instruction—all of these and more have been broached as potential ways of realizing undefined hopes for giving range and distinction, beyond the limits of tradition or precedent, to the objectives and life of the ultimate Dartmouth. In the natural course of events, the architectural urge has here found an outlet in studies for reducing the tract to roadways, walks, terraces, squares, circles and other geometric adjuncts to the sites of hypothetical buildings for unnamed purposes, presumably to be given reality at some indefinite time by donors now unknown.

Somewhere in the evolution of the tentative plan for plant development someone put his finger on a certain segment of the area and guessed that sometime it might be a good idea to move the Tuck School from the old campus and put it there, with a place of its own to live and work in. Casual as the thought may have been, it suggested at least one way of filling a blank space. Promptly, a new but unlabeled plot plan appeared on the map. There it stayed, presumably because no other scheme for using this piece of land was proposed.

All of this by perambulatory way of getting to the point of the text—prescribed all too loosely by the Editor—but more especially of showing how the seed of an off-hand idea may fall on Han6ver soil, lie dormant for a time, but suddenly strike root and rapidly take form and substance as an accomplished fact. Such is the story of the idea that is embodied in the group of beautiful buildings now occupied by the Tuck School.

The idea was brought to focus partly by the pressure of growing requirements of departments of undergraduate instruction and the administrative staff of the College for additional floor space, and partly by a meeting of minds on the advantages of providing a place for the Tuck School away from the center of facilities and processes chiefly concerned with the objectives of liberal education for the dominant undergraduate majority. The logic of the plan was engaging, for it would remove from the main campus a branch of the College that is committed to the purpose of supplementing, rather than of sharing, the normal program of undergraduate work in the arts and sciences. To that extent, whatever real or fancied effect the School, as a diluting agent, may or might exert through its presence in the main current of undergraduate activity, would be at least partially neutralized. By the same token, distance would seem to promise for the School some measure of insulation from the surge of campus distractions.

With complete agreement among the parties chiefly at interest, steps were taken to analyze the problem and canvass its requirements. The result of these studies was so pleasing that tentative plans were approved by the Trustees and submitted by the President to the then anonymous but keenly interested friend of this and many other projects for the good of the College. His ready word of approval brought both the authority and a call for action.

POLICY FOR NEW BUILDINGS

From then on the matter took its course in line with a procedure that has become standard for all projects having to do with proposed new buildings for the College. By order of the President, the Committee of the Trustees on Development and Maintenance of Plant, the College Architect, and a special committee of the Tuck School Faculty went into action.

The initial step was to determine the number of students for whom facilities were to be provided. On this question it was decided that for the sort of school and for the kind of work to which the Tuck School aspires to be and to do, it would be desirable to limit capacity to a maximum enrollment of 150 students, this number, incidentally, to permit of the admission of a larger number of graduates from other institutions than has been possible under the conditions of limited housing facilities prevailing for several years past.

Studies were then made of the requirements of a plant unit intended to meet the needs of the work and life contemplated for the School. From the first it had been in mind to provide housing for the greater part of the student enrollment, in addition to a main building for the instructional work of the School. As the studies progressed, the idea of including a dining hall was introduced, with the result that this was finally incorporated in the schedule. All of these data were then translated into terms of requirements for ground and floor space, estimates of cost and other preliminaries to the business of drawing plans.

With his genius for combining beauty in design and materials with the essence of utility and economy, plus a remarkable insight into the functional life and spirit of the college community in which he and his associates have lived and worked for years, the architect soon resolved the problem into plans, specifications and construction schedules. Careful surveys established the fact that the chosen site for the proposed buildings coincided very closely with the plot plan which, some time back, had been drawn, very tentatively, on the map of future plant development.

Contracts were placed and ground was broken in midsummer of last year. A special building committee, made up of the College Architect, the Treasurer of the College, and the Dean of the Tuck School was designated to assume responsibility for the countless decisions entailed by such a building project.

Construction was completed according to schedule, and the buildings were ready for occupancy well before the opening of the present college year. And at this point it is fit and proper to bear witness to the fine spirit of cooperation, unfailing courtesy, good faith, and pride of workmanship exemplified throughout the pe- riod of construction by the officers, resident staff and artisans representing the contractors, Hegeman-Harris, Inc., of New York city.

Framed by the great pines bordering Tuck Drive, the four buildings face south with a magnificent outlook that takes in the plain and hills below Norwich and, on clear days, comes to focus on the peak of Ascutney. A new roadway to the eastward from the terrace and semicircular drive in front of the group converges with Tuck Drive toward Baker Library. From the end of this road a new driveway circles out around the natural amphitheater lying to the southwest of the group, and turns back over a beautiful arched bridge in rough granite, to provide a service approach to the rear of the new buildings.

With such a setting and with terrace and lawns already green as only Hanover grass can be, the new group has beauty and distinction that command high rank among the architectural achievements in the college plant.

The principal unit of the group, in its exterior mass and detail, recalls early Georgian precedents as exempli

fied in the seventeenth century houses of great landed estates in England. The predominant material is the native red brick from Lebanon, which has been used with such good effect in other recent buildings of the College. At the main entrance has been placed a bronze tablet identifying the building with an inscription as shown in the panel at the bottom of page.

The entrance hall leads to a spacious lobby, furnished as a lounge, with an oakmantelled fireplace at the right and, at the left, an arched niche let into the panelled walls to give setting for the marble bust of Edward Tuck by the distinguished sculptor, Paul Landowski. The room is finished in oak stained in a soft brown that suggests age and warmth. Floors here and throughout the building are in varying tones of mottled browns, greys and buff.

From the lounge an entrance opens to the rear wing into a suite of offices for the administrative staff of the School. A distinctive feature of the suite is a Dean's office which is finished in panels of native butternut oiled and waxed to give color and surface that will respond to the mellowing effects of time and use.

To the left and right of the lounge are two rooms, one for meetings and other uses by the Faculty; the other for the Clearing House, a long-standing organization maintained by second-year students as a social and professional club. Both rooms are finished in pine stained and waxed to simulate the color and patina of age.

The remainder of the main floor is given over to offices for members of the Faculty. Each office is for a single occupant and is equipped with built-in bookcases, filing cabinets, and other utilities.

DETAILS OF MAIN BUILDING

The second floor is allotted on the front to five classrooms with seating capacities ranging from 35 to 50. At the rear and extending through the wing overlooking Tuck Drive is the library, equipped with book stacks on two levels, wall cases with shelves for books and periodicals, and long reading tables. A counter near the entrance gives access to the librarian's office and cataloging room. Opposite this is a spacious room especially designed to provide desk space and convenient access to standard reference sources for students engaged on research projects.

On the third floor is a large room which serves as an accounting and statistical laboratory. This connects with a room equipped with several types of computing machines. Adjoining the latter room is a large office reserved for the work of the Faculty Committee on Research. The floor also contains three faculty offices.

The ground floor gains from the contours of the land, which are such as to permit of full window heights and ample natural light for most of the space. The rear wing is occupied by a large lecture room furnished with "banked seating for 185 persons and is equipped with a booth and apparatus for projecting lantern slides and moving pictures. In addition to four faculty offices, there are seminar rooms for small classes and conference groups, an advertising laboratory, store-rooms, and a vault for archives.

The building is lighted and heated from the central plant of the College, each room having unit thermostatic control. There is a toilet room on each floor. Excellent ventilation is ensured through a system of forced draught actuated by large electric fans in the subbasement.

The two dormitories flanking Tuck Hall are at right angles to the arcades connecting the three buildings on the main level. Covered passageways on the lower level connect all four buildings of the group.

The dormitories have accommodations in single and double rooms at varying rentals for a total of 105 occupants. Several suites on each floor have fireplaces, and a few are equipped with private toilets. On the upper floors, stair halls are shut off from corridors by partitions that are intended to favor quiet and seclusion for occupants. Ample toilets and showers are provided on each floor. In the basement of each dormitory are two courts for squash and handball.

The names of the dormitories are designated by bronze tablets placed near the entrances, with these inscriptions:

The high point of beauty and distinction of architectural treatment is the dining room in Stell Hall, the fourth unit of the group. At the west end of the longitudinal axis defined by the hallways connecting all four units on both the ground and lower levels, the entrance gives directly into the great hall with its high vaulted roof, massive but graceful overhead beams and trusses, and richly panelled walls. Near the entrance to the hall is a tablet which reads:

High arched, triple-sashed windows on the south wall look out over a broad terrace. They were designed with an eye to potential buffet service for guests of the College who may at some future time be attendant on commencement exercises and other festive occasions tobe held in the adjoining outdoor amphitheater—if, when and as that engaging project is consummated.

At the middle point of this side of the room is a great stone-faced fireplace with a richly carved and panelled oak mantel extending to the height of the wall. The large portrait of Mr. Tuck by DeCamp has place over the mantel to give added color and distinction to a magnificent room.

Wall panels and other woodwork are in oak stained in rich greyish brown tones, with a waxed finish rubbed down enough only to bring out the quality of the handplaned panel surfaces. Two great chandeliers in antique brass, hung from the ceiling, and lantern fixtures at intervals on the wide walls ensure a pleasing illumination.

Dark oak tables and high-back chairs of appropriate design provide seating for groups of varying numbers. Clusters of pine cones and needles in the decoration of china, green glassware and touches of the same color in the linen, impart charm to a stately setting. One would search far to find a dining hall of equal beauty and dignity.

Adjoining the dining hall is a serving room made immaculate by a floor of red tile and walls of glazed, creamcolored tiles. The equipment is complete and admirably adapted to ensure cleanliness and convenience of service.

The floor-space under the dining hall and serving room is given over to the kitchen, refrigerating compartments and store-rooms. Walls and floor are finished in tile similar to that in the serving room. Equipment for the preparation of food is of the most modern type, electrical refrigeration and gas for cooking being used throughout.

A plant so admirably planned, so completely equipped, and combining so high a measure of utility with such charm and dignity of design and setting, would seem to approach perfection as a place in which to carry on with the work and life of the School. And so it has proved during the brief period in which the group has been occupied and in use.

RE-APPRAISAL OF WORK

The project for the erection of the new buildings gave incentive and occasion for a re-appraisal of the purposes and work of the School. Accordingly, for more than a year, the Faculty has been engaged on a thoroughgoing survey covering objectives, organization, curriculum, requirements, methods of instruction and other matters bearing on the policy and work of the School.

Progress in these studies thus far has led to a reaffirmation of the principal objectives to which the School has traditionally adhered since its establishment thirty years ago. The aim is still to ensure "a thorough training in the fundamental principles of business administration, with due regard for the social, economic and ethical aspects of the business system, considered from both national and international points of view." With a policy contemplating a definitely limited number of students selected for their ability and purpose to do work of consistently high quality, the School will undertake, as in the past, to make the most of the advantages inherent in a restricted enrollment that favors small classes and intimacy of contact between students and instructors.

But the survey has already led to numerous refinements in objective and improvements in method. The curriculum has been improved in the direction of greater unity of plan and broader scope of content. The staff has been strengthened by the appointment of additional personnel. Revised methods of instruction give promise of increasingly productive results. All told, the privilege of working and living in a magnificent new plant has opened the way to means and incentive for a progressively better and more useful contribution to the educational process.

For more than a generation the name of Edward Tuck has been vitally and inseparably associated with the cumulative growth in strength and prestige by which Dartmouth has steadily moved on into the high places in the ranks of leadership in American education. No appraisal will ever fully evaluate his contribution to the tangible resources of the College. Nor can record ever be made of the imponderable values that, out of the intelligence and timeliness and infectious spirit of his unfailing generosity, have created an inexhaustible endowment which can never have place in the balance sheet of the College. If testimonial were needed to affirm the greatness of his share in the making of the present-day Dartmouth, no symbol could be more fitting than the beautiful group of buildings which, through his bounty, has been erected for the school which bears his distinguished father's name.

DEAN WILLIAM R. GRAY

STELL HALL

v THE LIBRARY

TUCK HALL AND WOODBURY HOUSE WITH TUCK DRIVE AND BAKER LIBRARY AT THE RIGHT

STELL HALL CHASE HOUSE TUCK HALL WOODBURY HOUSE

THE ENTRANCE TO CHASE HOUSE

FOYER OF TTJCK HALL SHOWING BUST OF EDWARD TUCK

MAKING WAY FOR NEW

THIS BUILDING IS NAMED FOR EDWARD TUCK BORN AT EXETER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 1842 GRADUATE OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 1862 IN 1900 FOUNDER OF THE AMOS TUCK SCHOOL OF ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE DONOR OF THIS GROUP OF BUILDINGS GRAND CROIX DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR LAUREAT ACADEMIE FRANCAISE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIER PHILANTHROPIST PATRON OF THE ARTS PRE-EMINENT FRIEND AND BENEFACTOR OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE

CHASE HOUSE NAMED FOR SALMON P. CHASE 1808-1873 GRADUATE OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 1826 UNITED STATES SENATOR 1849-55 1861 GOVERNOR OF OHIO 1856-60 SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY IN THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN 1861-64 CHIEF JUSTICE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT 1865-73

WOODBURY HOUSE NAMED FOR LEVI WOODBURY 1789-1851 GRADUATE OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 1809 JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 1816-23 GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 1823-24 UNITED STATES SENATOR 1825-31 1841-45 SECRETARY OF THE NAVY 1831-34 SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY 1834-41 JUSTICE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT 1845-51

STELL HALL NAMED IN MEMORY OF JULIA STELL 1850-1928 WIFE OF EDWARD TUCK CO-WORKER OF GOOD DEEDS OFFICIER DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR