Musical Buildings

BECAUSE the only contiguous undeveloped property owned by Dartmouth resides just north of Baker, expansion of the library will start there. In exchange for playing fields north of the campus and $225,000, the College got the town of Hanover to give up Elm Street, the short road running behind Baker, from Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity to Kiewit, so the library can continue northward uninterrupted.

Gerry and Bradley Halls also will have to go. Many people on campus consider this a small loss, since the two buildings that house the math and psychology departments are commonly held to be two of the ugliest structures in Hanover, conforming to the bathroom-tile aesthetics of the 1960s. Already, new homes for those two departments are being made in the building that formerly held the Dartmouth-Hitchcock mental health clinic. As the College heads northward, only the facilities will grow. The student population is slated to remain static.

"Whatever happens, the inside of the library will look very different," Pipes said. "Exactly how, we can't really know."