Revival
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CAMPUS
Hopkins Center unveils an $88-million expansion.
The long-awaited design and details arrived in April, with construction set to begin later this year. They call for the addition of $15,000 square feet and a transformation of much of the arts center. Makeover highlights include turning Alumni Hall into a "performance lab" with seating and updated sound, lighting, and projection technologies. The roof will also, literally, be raised. Other features include anew futuristic recital hall and a theater rehearsal lab. The Top of the Hop and Spaulding Auditorium also will receive makeovers.
“The Hop has long been a center for creative expression on the Dartmouth campus,” says Craig Dykers, a founding partner of Snohetta, the Oslo, Norway-based architects behind the design. “As the prototype for an entire generation of academic and civic art centers, the Hop will be reimagined once more as the College’s cultural hub, a place of experimentation, art, and community.”
The redesign aims to foster more “opportunities for artistic creation,” notes Mary Lou Aleskie, director of the center. With a reopening slated for 2025, she has plenty of time to plan a celebration—and help raise the nearly $38 million still needed to meet the price tag.
