Moore Hall, the new home of Dartmouth's Department of psychology and brain sciences, was dedicated Friday afternoon in a ceremony that emphasized the building's embodiment of both form and function.
The new four-story building located on the northern end of campus, reached completion this summer. Moore houses faculty offices and research laboratories in addition to state-of-the-art teaching laboratories and classrooms equipped with computers and audiovisual capabilities.
Dean of the Faculty Ed Berger, in the dedication speech, quoted Thomas Jefferson in his description of the building, calling it "simple and sublime."
Funding for Moore Hall was provided primarily by a gift from Lancing Porter Moore '37 and his wife Florence Bennett Moore. Their $18.1 million gift to Dartmouth in 1996 was the largest in the history of the College and contributed toward the $27 million cost of Moore Hall.
"The Class of 1937 will always be proud of Lansing and Florence for their gift to this wonderful institution," Charles Collis '37 said at the dedication. Collis's gifts to the College led to the construction of the Collis Center.
A long awaited feature of Moore Hall is the Brain Imaging Laboratory, which contains a state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. Researchers will be able to utilize the MRI to visualize human brain activity during the performance of various tasks using non-invasive methods.
The department of psychological and brain sciences joins only a handful of academic departments in the country that are equipped with this type of brain imaging technology.
The College's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, which explores the neural basis for mental processes such as learning, memory, and sensory perception, will occupy the classrooms and office space on the fourth floor while the new Filene lecture hall in the basement can accommodate 225 students.
Administrators and faculty hope the new Moore Hall will enable departmental growth that has been restricted in the past due to overcrowding and facility obsolescence problems.
In addition to the new academic technologies, features of the building include large, open hallways and classrooms with more windows and open space than Silsby Hall, the former home of the psychology department. Solid oak furniture, paneling, bookshelves, and doors furnish many classrooms while a set of billowed glass windows in the upstairs library.
