The Hopkins Center Concept
THE decision of the Dartmouth Trustees to go ahead with the planning and building of the Hopkins Center was announced in last month's issue. An entirely new concept of the Center as a focal point for both the creative arts and the social life of the College has been given to the special planning committee now at work under the chairmanship of Nelson A. Rockefeller '30. The fullest and clearest interpretation of this new concept is contained in a memorandum from President Dickey to the Board of Trustees, dated January 5, 1956. For the benefit and interest of Dartmouth alumni, we print the President's statement in full:
I. The Concept
The new Hopkins Center is to enhance the shared enjoyment of life.
It will provide at the crossroads of the Dartmouth community a campus gathering point where the fellowship of the College may be enjoyed in creation, in recreation, in learning, and in contemplation.
In providing both a physical focus and a significant context for the social life of the College this Center will itself create a new dimension in the educational experience to be had at Dartmouth. We are not aiming to build merely a more attractive social center, nor even just a better theatre (including lecture halls) and finer facilities for the creative and communication arts; we do expect to get each of these, but the real meaning of this undertaking is in the combination and the new dimension of the Dartmouth education experience that that combination will create.
II. The Needs
The central need of any college is to accomplish its purpose better. All else flows from this need. The totality of Dartmouth's purpose - to educate young men in the liberating arts - requires many approaches and varied facilities, to wit: the library, the classroom, the chapel, the laboratory, the gymnasium, and that complex of "other things" to do and contemplate, out of which grows the human capacity for creating and sharing the joy and grace of daily life.
Among those "other things" we greatly need at Dartmouth today are:
1. Central social facilities where students, girl guests, faculty, alumni, parents, and others can gather in large or small numbers, on given occasions or simply "in passing" - in fine, a physical focus for the fellowship of Dartmouth.
2. A theatre where first-rate dramatic work may be performed and enjoyed. Our lack of respectable facilities for one of the great teaching and entertainment forms is a scandalous handicap to the work of this liberal arts campus. This lack also greatly restricts the entertainment program and thus accelerates the centrifugal social forces that make "week-ending" a growing problem in the life of a resident campus.
3. A public place for the doing and the viewing of the creative arts that will at the least expose all of our students to the possibilities for lifetime liberation through enjoyment of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, poetry, print making, woodworking, the craft arts, and, as said above, the theatre.
4. Lecture hall facilities that will permit greater teaching flexibility and more effective use of slides, motion pictures, and television for large-scale instructional and other purposes.
III. Preliminary Planning
The pivotal principle in our planning has been to develop a Center that would capitalize on the site and compound the value of individual facilities by putting each in a position of constant mutual invigoration with the other facilities and functions of the Center.
A. The Site
The Bissell Hall site has long been recognized as the last, large, uncommitted location that would be open on the center campus in the foreseeable future. Adjacent to the Hanover Inn as it is, the location is a natural one for a use that supplements the social and other functions of the Inn. Being on one of the principal crossroad corners, the site calls for a use that will be large and significant, touching the entire community in its daily comings and goings. Likewise being in one of the most prominent locations, the site ought to be occupied by a structure that will itself contribute to the architectural distinction of the campus. Finally, because this site, like the Inn porch, commands a particularly advantageous outlook on the beauty and activity of the campus, it ought to be reserved for the type of structure and use that can exploit this uniquely precious asset. These considerations are all directly relevant to the needs listed above.
The preliminary studies done by Mr. Aldrich, our consulting architect, and Mr. Wallace Harrison (who has been retained to develop a concrete proposal for the project) indicate that the above uses will fully occupy the site. These studies and our experiences with the earlier Hopkins Center project led to the conclusion that a large auditorium structure cannot be located on this site without seriously impairing the spaciousness and architectural proportions of the central campus area. Moreover, experience here and elsewhere during the past decade suggests that when the large auditorium is constructed it should probably be made large enough to accommodate upwards of 6,000 people and designed for such multiple uses as: commencement, convocation, basketball, and large concerts. This type of building would call for a different site and permit more economical construction.
B. The Building
No detailed thinking concerning the design of the building has been done. This has awaited the final choice of an architect by the Board, and both Mr. Harrison and Mr. Aldrich have emphasized that the final exterior treatment should reflect the skeleton of use that is worked out for the Center. The architects and the Building Committee are clear on several things: first, that the design of the exterior on Wheelock and College Streets should be worked out with paramount regard to its relationship with Dartmouth Row; secondly, that it should be a contemporary architectural treatment providing a sense of internal and external spaciousness with a maximum of glass frontage to draw the passerby's interest and to afford an optimum outlook over the campus; and thirdly, that it should have a front appearance that will mark it as bringing fresh architectural distinction to the campus through a character and beauty of its own.
C. The Social Uses
The social uses will be spread throughout the building. In the front portion on the lower levels there may be a snack bar, a bookstore, central ticket office, mail distribution, current art exhibits, etc.
On the second floor across the entire front there will be a large lookout room. This room will focus on the central campus and be a year-round spot for enjoying the beauty and life of the campus. It will be attractively furnished for either tête-à-tête or group use and it may have light refreshment, music, and casual reading facilities.
On the ground floor there will be open courts and terraces within the building to provide a sense of looking-out spaciousness throughout the building and opportunities for viewing out-of-doors sculpture and social activities in seasonable weather.
The front portion of the building will lead directly into the theatre and also connect with the main exhibit galleries, the studios and workshops, and these areas will connect with the large party room to be built adjoining the Inn kitchen and to the rear of the present dining room, where informal student dances, alumni and faculty receptions, cocktail parties, etc., can be held. This room will be equipped to serve either large dinner-with-speaking gatherings (up to 400) or to be subdivided for smaller dinner groups to supplement the Inn dining room. In the basement of this area there may be an opportunity for the somewhat more informal type of facility now found in the Ski Hut.
D. The Theatre
The theatre, probably located immediately behind the front area on the ground floor, will be the central feature of the Center. It will seat between 400 and 500 persons and the aim is to make it the finest of its kind. In addition to all theatre needs, it will be available for small, relatively intimate musical performances and for lectures during class hours. It will be equipped with TV broadcasting facilities, music broadcasting for use throughout the building, etc.
It is contemplated that there will always be some activity (productions, rehearsals, or stage preparations) on the stage of the theatre during the extracurricular hours of the afternoon and evening. The theatre will be designed and operated so that this activity may be shared either by an audience or by casual observers through observation windows.
E. The Galleries, Studios, and Workshops of the Creative Arts
Two principles have governed our thinking about the place of the creative arts in the Center.
The Amsden Advisory Committee on Plant Planning recommended that all of our creative arts work and facilities should be brought together and made into a creative arts center. This was initially proposed by the Amsden Committee as the new Hopkins Center. It was felt that bringing the creative arts into proximity in a central place would both (1) symbolize their importance in liberal learning and (2) produce cross-fertilization and a heightened sense of relatedness among the different arts. The principle of proximity has been followed in our efforts to gather these facilities together in one center and to arrange their locations so that there will be a maximum amount of inevitable association and interchange on the part of the participants in these activities.
Further development of the Amsden Committee's proposal led to combining its essential idea for a creative art center with Dartmouth's long-standing need for a social center. The theatre, galleries, workshops, and studios of the arts, in addition to serving their own purposes directly, would provide a significant and pervasive context or background for the social functions of the Center. The objective here again is twofold: (1) to provide activities that will help attract students and others into the Center and (2) to further the educational purposes of the College by bringing more students to enjoyment of the arts by making them participants, at least as spectators, in the experience of creating something in one of the art forms. These objectives will be served (a) by the "sidewalk superintendent" principle of keeping the activity in the studios and workshops open to the view of the users of the building whenever such viewing will not seriously interfere with the work being done and (b) by relating the exhibitions to current work in the studios.
It is recognized that at times at least some of the art workers will require privacy but it is believed that with flexibility and by encouraging art workers to do more "in the open" really exciting things may be accomplished in bringing our students generally to feel that the arts can be a natural and wonderful part of their own daily lives. For example, it is believed that the theatre and woodworking shops (perhaps with spectator galleries) can be almost wholly responsive to this principle and Paul Sample and his colleagues believe that much can also be done in this direction with the fine arts studios.
The studios and workshops will be located toward the rear of the Center but in line with the above principle they will be arranged and connected with the other sections so as to encourage a natural and constant circulation of potential "customers" (curious or casual viewers) through the studio and shop areas. It might be noted that those in charge of the studios and shops will be on the lookout for ways and opportunities to recruit apprentice participants from the ranks of the merely curious and casual viewers.
F. Lecture Hall Facilities
In addition to the theatre seating between 400 and 500 (half an entire class) it is proposed to include an auditorium for 900 in the over-all plans for the Center. This auditorium will be in the rear of the other areas and in this respect may be more separable than the other three principal areas. It will be designed primarily to meet the pressing need we have for an instructional facility that will accommodate an entire class where first-rate facilities can be provided both for lecture and visual presentations. Just as the theatre will have a subsidiary use as a lecture hall during class hours, this lecture hall will be available for use for motion pictures, screen television, theatrical and musical events, and public meetings when a hall of this size is needed.
There are a number of considerations that make such a hall a desirable adjunct of the Center. A hall of this character and size will have many uses for the entire college community and as such ought to have a central location particularly in view of the fact that a new auditorium-arena will necessarily be some distance from the central campus. A lecture hall of this size and character located away from the central campus would largely lose its value as a multipurpose facility. Most importantly the use of this hall for such required courses as "The Individual and the College" (entire freshman class) and "Great Issues" (entire senior class) will assure bringing a large daily circulation of students through the other areas of the Center and thereby contribute importantly to realizing the combined use purposes of the Center in full measure.
This hall along with the theatre will free other facilities for other instructional purposes, e.g., the new art galleries and studios in the Center may free space in Carpenter and elsewhere for office and classroom use.
G. Management of Center
It is contemplated that full-time professional personnel would be placed in charge of the Center in order that its varied facilities and functions would constantly be co-ordinated and kept focused on getting the combination of uses through which we aim to create on this campus a new dimension in the experience of liberal learning.
