College To Build Four New Dorms

WITH the construction of four new dormitory units, to begin this spring, the Dartmouth plant will acquire its first buildings of contemporary design. Plans for this new type of student residence hall have been prepared by the College's consulting architects, Campbell and Aldrich of Boston, whose model of two of the units is shown in the ac-companying illustration.

The new dormitories, housing 300 students, will be located on the former Clark School playing field, to the north of the fraternity houses on Webster Avenue. It is estimated that the four units will cost $1,500,000.

Carrying out a recommendation of the Commission on Campus Life, each double unit will include an apartment for a resident faculty member and a large common room to serve as a center for the social life of the students. These two features will be in a central and separate building, connected with the two residence units by elevated, glass-enclosed bridges.

The student residence units will consist of four three-story buildings, each housing 75 men. For the most part the student rooms will be grouped in eight-man suites, each containing a living room, four double bedrooms, and lavatory, shower and toilet facilities. Plans call for the "convertibility" of two bedrooms in each suite into single rooms, so that it will be possible to have four single bedrooms and two double rooms in some suites, or to create some other ratio as student rooming requirements change from time to time. The partitions separating the single rooms will not be readily removable, but it will be possible, in a major redecorating of the buildings, to vary the number of single rooms.

The commons rooms for general social use will be built at second-floor level, raised from the ground by columns. With their large expanses of glass, they have been raised to take advantage of the view of the surrounding hills and to enhance the effect of spaciousness at ground level.

The two faculty residences will be at ground level and will occupy adjoining pieces of land. Each will consist of a living-dining room, two bedrooms, study and bath. The study will adjoin the ground-level entrance to the social room, which will permit students to meet with the faculty member without going through the remainder of the house. The space beneath the elevated common will serve as a carport for the faculty resident.

All the buildings will be of flat roof design, with exterior of red brick over concrete block. Partitions in the dormitories will probably be some form of concrete structural block. All buildings will have large window areas and will be of fire-resistant, "Class A" construction. It is expected that bids for their construction will be requested by May and that construction may begin in June.

In announcing the Trustees' acceptance of the plans prepared by Campbell and Aldrich, President Dickey pointed out that the new dormitories are not being built in order to take care of an increase in the size of the student body but that they are being added to the plant to relieve the existing crowded conditions in the dormitories.

"During the immediate postwar years," President Dickey said, "Dartmouth expanded in size to meet an unprecedented demand and to take care of returning veterans. Since that time enrollment pressures have remained at a high level, and the College has been forced into placing more students in available dormitories than would be desirable as a permanent arrangement."

The addition of four dormitories, increasing the number of undergraduate residence halls to 25, is the second step in a program to modernize and improve student living quarters. Last year most of the rooms in Topliff Hall were completely renovated, and plans call for separating the dormitory, largest on campus, into two units through the erection of corridor partitions.

Studies are now being made for the possible remodelling also of Massachusetts, Wheeler, Richardson and North Fayerweather Halls, presently housing 402 men. This third step in the general program would have to wait, however, until the new dormitories are completed, since the remodelling would probably be done during the school year.

Architects' model of two of the four residence units of contemporary design.