A New Dimension in Dartmouth Education
ARCHITECTURAL plans for Dartmouth's long-awaited Hopkins Center were made public last month at a special press conference in New York. Present to explain this unique cultural and social project were President Dickey, who discussed the purpose of the Center, and Wallace K. Harrison (L.H.D. '50), world-famous architect, who has taken this concept and given it an impressive and equally unique form.
The first major addition to the Dartmouth plant since Baker Library was erected nearly thirty years ago, Hopkins Center will occupy a strategic crossroads site at the south end of the campus, adjacent to the Hanover Inn. Contemporary in design, it will have a special architectural interest because of the care with which Mr. Harrison has related it in scale and materials - largely red brick with white trim - to the present campus structures. The Dartmouth Trustees have given their enthusiastic approval to the Center plans, and construction is scheduled to begin next spring, to be completed probably in 1960.
The main section of the ALUMNI MAGAZINE this month presents the Hopkins Center plans as completely as they are known at the present time. Far more effectively than words, the pictorial contents - floor plans, artists' renderings, cross-sections, plot plan and photographs of the architect's model - will tell the detailed story of the size and scope of the Center, the variety of facilities offered there, and the interrelatedness, carefully worked out, of all the cultural and social activities to be given a home in the Center. In addition, the following pages contain articles by several members of the Hopkins Center Building Committee and by others who will direct activities within the Center. The MAGAZINE contents, in total, are intended to give the alumni a full picture of the Hopkins Center not only as a distinctive achievement in architectural design and planning but also as an exciting and thoroughly original effort to bring a new dimension into the life of Dartmouth as a liberal arts college.
The Hopkins Center, extending a full block from Wheelock to Lebanon Street, is a composite of four main units: (1) the 450-seat theater and second-floor Top of the Hop, at the north, front end of the Center; (2) the Alumni Hall unit, adjoining the Inn; (3) the studio and workshop unit, extending along the west side of the site; and (4) at the south end, with its main entrance on Lebanon Street, the goo-seat lecture-concert hall, beneath which the musical organizations will have their quarters. Throughout the structure, galleries, exhibition areas, and social and recreational facilities, indoors and out, will serve to unify the whole complex of buildings as a campus gathering point and as the physical focus of Dartmouth fellowship.
The Center will cover an area 400 by 200 feet. In order to give it this width, College Street from Wheelock to Lebanon Street will be closed off, allowing the new structure to extend close to Wilson Museum and Brewster House. Although its cubic footage will be very large, the Center has been designed with the aim of retaining the spacious feeling and architectural proportions of the central campus. The front of the Center, facing the campus, is rather low; the highest point of the building, the stage house for the theater, is set well back and is connected with the front of the Center by a graceful, curving line. Generous use of glass and a large garden court between the theater and the lecture-concert hall also contribute to the spacious, open quality sought by Mr. Harrison in his design.
The cost of constructing the group of related buildings in the Center is estimated at $7,500,000. An additional $2,000,000 in endowment will be needed to take care of the annual expenses of maintenance and operation. The College now has approximately $2,000,000 in hand for construction purposes, and another $1,500,000 available and earmarked for endowment. As announced at Commencement last June, John D. Rockefeller Jr. has made a contingent offer of $1,000,000 toward Hopkins Center construction costs, on a dollar-for-dollar matching basis until May 1958. The College therefore needs to raise an additional $5,000,000 to carry through the Hopkins Center project. This item is at the top of the list of objectives for the two-year capital gifts campaign Dartmouth is launching next fall.
When it becomes a reality, the Hopkins Center will fulfill the recommendation of the Amsden Committee on Plant Planning for a creative arts center and it will also meet the College's long-standing need for a social center. It is in the combination of the two that the Hopkins Center has its real significance and represents an original venture in American higher education. This concept of the project has evolved from a whole series of proposed Hopkins Centers, planned by various building committees going back to the 1920'5. The initial idea of a large auditorium no longer figures in Hopkins Center plans and now is envisaged as part of an auditorium-arena located some distance from the central campus.
With the architect, the present concept has been translated into physical detail by a special Hopkins Center Building Committee, under the chairmanship of Nelson A. Rockefeller '30, former Trustee of the College. Other members are Mrs. John R. Potter ('38), the former Ann Hopkins, of Darien, Conn.; Warner Bentley, director of dramatic production; Victor G. Borella '30 of New York; Associate Dean Arthur H. Kiendl Jr. '44; Prof. Churchill P. Lathrop, director of Carpenter Art Galleries; John F. Meek '33, Vice President and Treasurer of the College; Prof. Donald H. Morrison, Provost of the College; Prof. Hugh S. Morrison '26, chairman of the Hanover Town Planning Board; Thomas E. O'Connell '50, executive assistant to the President and executive director of the Trustees Planning Committee; Richard W.Olmsted '32, business manager of the College; Paul Sample '20, artist in residence; Prof. James A. Sykes, chairman of the Music Department; and John R. Scotford Jr. '38, special assistant in the Hopkins Center Program.
The committee has had the help of a great many others, including those who will direct activities within the Center. As shown in the plans reproduced in this issue, the Hopkins Cen- ter will bring together all the theatrical activities of the College; art galleries and sculpture court; studios for painting, design, drafting, and sculpture; workshops for graphic arts, woodworking, metal crafts, and ceramics; hi-fi listening rooms; and music rehearsal rooms for band, orchestra, Glee Club, instrumental and singing groups, and individuals.
The Alumni Hall, off which the new Ski Hut will be located, can easily be served by the Hanover Inn. It will be divisible into three smaller rooms and will be used for many College affairs as well as alumni dinners and get-togethers. The Alumni Hall unit will also include a lounge, the student post office, and the management offices of the Center.
Plan of the Hopkins Center main floor, showing the relation of theater, art galleries, student post office, studios, lecture-concert hall, and courtyards.
Second-floor plan, north, showing two major components: the theater-social unit and Alumni Hall
Plot plan relating the Center to familiar landmarks and showing the four-part character of the design.
