Trustees Authorize New Auditorium

NEW CONSTRUCTION TO meet two imperative needs of the College's physical plant was authorized by the Dartmouth Board of Trustees at its annual spring meeting on June 9. A laboratory addition to the Wilder physics building and a new auditorium large enough to seat the entire student body were approved by the Trustees, who voted to have the new buildings started "as soon as conditions will permit."

Plans for both the enlargement of Wilder Hall and for the auditorium and drama-music center have been ready for several years, but these will now be reviewed and probably revised in the light of latest developments in construction and materials. President Hopkins and the Trustees have expressed the desire to have the new physics facilities and the auditorium as modernly complete as possible.

The auditorium, to be erected on the site of the present Bissell Hall at the southeast corner of the campus, will be the central feature of the so-called Dartmouth Center, designed some years ago to provide facilities for enhanced work in music, drama and radio, as well as to answer Dartmouth's pressing need for a large hall in which the entire student body of 2500 may gather for academic and other occasions.

The Wilder Hall addition, which has for some time been at the top of the list of Dartmouth's plant needs, will take the form of a new structure connected with the present building so that the two can be used as a single unit. It is expected that the laboratory facilities of the new wing will be used primarily for advanced work in modern physics. Some remodelling of the present Wilder Hall will also be undertaken so as to improve the architectural effect of that part of the campus. Wilder Hall dates from 1898, since which time the College has tripled in numbers and teaching methods and equipment in the field of physics have developed greatly.

Webster Hall, which now serves as the college auditorium, is almost as old, having been built in 1907 for a college of 1200 students. For many years it has been inadequate not only in size but also in its facilities for dramatic and musical presentations. In the new hall approved by the Trustees, the departments of music and drama will have ample space and the very latest facilities for their public programs, for rehearsals and experimental work, and for the practical association of teaching and actual production. A little theatre seating 400 is planned for experimental work in the drama, as well as for smaller lectures, concerts, and meetings. The large auditorium, seating 2700, will have a commodious and modernly equipped stage and will have a movable curtain by means of which it can be transformed into a smaller auditorium for occasions not requiring the full seating capacity. Detailed plans for the center were drawn up by J. Fredrick Larson, college architect, in accordance with recommendations of a special committee which began its studies as long ago as 1930.

In authorizing the construction of the Dartmouth Center and the Wilder Hall addition, the Dartmouth Trustees voted as follows:

The Trustees of the College, recognizing the indispensability to the post-war College of certain additions to its plant for maintenance of its standards, voted that action as follows be taken as soon as conditions will permit:

1. To build a laboratory in addition to equipment already available in order that facilities, classrooms, and equipment may be further provided for the effective teaching of modern physics.

2. To build an auditorium of sufficient size for accommodation of the entire undergraduate body and including facilities for expanded work in drama and music, in general as suggested in studies already made.

Earlier plans for the Dartmouth Center included a proposal for a summer drama festival of national character, but the present announcement includes no information as to whether the proposal will now be revived.

ARCHITECT'S TENTATIVE PLANS for the enlarged Wilder Physics Laboratories (above) and the new auditorium and drama-music center which the Dartmouth Board of Trustees has authorized for construction as soon as conditions will permit. Plans for both these modern additions to Dartmouth's postwar educational plant have existed for several years and will now receive further study. J. Fredrick Larson, College architect, prepared them.