The Architect — Lo-Yi Chan

The architect — Lo-Yi Chan: "Designing for a cohesive campus such as Dartmouth's requires special attention to the historical context. In the past, the consistency of the campus was well served by Neo-Georgian brick buildings, and there is some logic in continuing this. Yet, in an institution devoted to truth, a new structure must be true to use and technique — and should express the aspirations of its people. These two aesthetic ideas are in apparent conflict.

"The conflict is heightened in Silsby Hall. Silsby, built in 1928 in the shape of a T,' was always intended to be expanded to an 'H.' Its Georgian facade, much distorted to accommodate a laboratory function, is nonetheless orderly with an intended symmetry. In its incompleted state, Silsby has faced Main Street for 53 years with one wing missing, like a chair with one arm.

"Rockefeller Hall is to be the missing arm with the further need that Rockefeller Hall should have a symbolic importance equal to that of Silsby. The issue, then, is how to design Rockefeller Hall in response to an overwhelming, almost predetermined Neo-Georgian context, yet still achieve new goals that have evolved since the age of electicism.

"My proposal is to attempt to accommodate both.

"On Main Street, Rockefeller Hall's facade will be a replica of Silsby, complete with small-paned double-hung windows and false chimneys the missing arm for Silsby (see East Elevation). Around the corner, on Webster Avenue, the facade expresses other values culminating in a major passageway that lines up on Massachusetts Mall. Here, windows and building forms are more expressive of use, and the structural bay is expressed. There are curves echoing the Hopkins Center curves that were a particular preoccupation of Nelson Rockefeller (see North Elevation).

"To tie the new and the 'old' together, there will be a copper roof, matching brick, and appropriate detailing and scale.

"In the resolution of conflict, sometimes new understandings emerge. We are too close to test the long-term meaning of what I propose, but I see a solution here that is right for the College at this place and at this time."